Got the practice schedule for Logan's basketball team. 4 practices a week. He really needs it. Basketball is a hard game to master and you can only do it by constant practice. At the moment, football is his favorite sport, followed by basketball and with baseball a distant third.
Some of the other kids in the Mavs organization are doing private instruction right now. We did that all through last year. I think this year, we may skip it. If Logan drops a sport, it's going to be baseball. I don't believe in pushing him in sports. At their core, they're supposed to be fun. Challenging? Yes, but fun, primarily.
I also still have a bit of a bad taste in my mouth from last season, but I need to get over it. Logan spent the entire off-season working his butt off and when the season started, the coach had him batting 11th. He started off badly, and I think part of it was due to being stuffed into the bottom of the order. After a couple weeks, he shook the rust off and was essentially the team's best hitter until the last two weeks of the season where he went back into a slump. Overall, he ended up 5th in batting, out of 12 kids on the team. Not much difference between him and #3 and 4, either.
Unfortunately, I think the coach had his mind made up about who was going to play where, and what he saw didn't have any influence on his decision. Logan deserved a much better place in the batting order and a lot more infield time and he didn't get them. (The coach did begrudgingly move him to 7th in the batting order after Logan went through a 2 week streak where he hit .700.)
This year, it's a different team and a different coach, but like I said, I feel a little let down by his experience last year. Baseball is a sport where perception plays a much bigger role than in other sports, in my opinion.
It dawned on me that part of the reason is that baseball doesn't really give you a way to have one player play directly against another.
In football, every practice, Logan is running drills against other players. A common drill is an angle-tackling drill where players take turns running the ball (playing RB), then switching and playing LB to try and tackle the RB. You get a pretty clear picture of where the kids fall after watching that for a few weeks.
Logan got his starting FB job because during tackling drills, he made a habit of dragging his tacklers for a few extra yards per touch.
In basketball, you can have players match up, one-on-one and see how they do. You can watch them on their man in scrimmages. You can have them play one-on-one. It's really easy to see where they stack up.
In baseball? Not so much. You can see who does better in fielding drills, but a lot of that is subjective. Hitting? You can get a good idea of how kids hit by watching them in BP, but you can also ignore that if you want, too.
Anyway, I'm still hacked off that he played the entire season in the outfield last year. There were better infielders on the team, and they all deserved the bulk of the playing time. Near as I can figure, there were 4 of them. However, there were also kids who were clearly not as good and they all got more infield time, too. Part of it is that Logan was a very good CF, but part of it, frankly, is just that I don't think enough effort was being made to develop players. Overall, I wasn't impressed with what I saw last year. The year before? It was very, very good. Last year? It went very, very badly, I think.
I'm ready to support Logan in any way, in any sport, if he shows the drive. I'm not going to nag him to practice, though. I'm not going to set up private instruction in sports he doesn't care that much about. Baseball may be the first sport he drops.
Personally, I think he shows a lot more talent in baseball than in basketball, but if he wants to play High School basketball, he might need to crowd out baseball. Another kid on the basketball team found a summer league to play in, and I will try to get details on that so Logan can play that next Summer if he wants.
In the final analysis, his success in sports is going to depend on a few things. One is his physical development. If he continues to grow to be big and strong, he'll have an advantage in sports. The other is his desire. If he wants to be a great baseball player and wants to put in the work, I'll support it. If he doesn't, I won't push it.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Monday, October 3, 2011
Logan's new team
Logan worked out with his new team yesterday. There are 3 other kids from his elementary school on it. Logan and one other kid will really improve this team for next year. The kids all looked okay and like Logan, they were probably all a little bit rusty.
Logan is by far one of the faster kids on the team. His old team, he was probably dead middle of the pack. Didn't really see them hit much, but Logan really should be one of the better hitters on the team. Fielding? He really didn't look that different than the other kids. Maybe a little better than some, but they all looked rusty.
The coach is a new one who doesn't have a kid on the team. I was one of only 3 dads helping with the practice. I really don't have time to commit to this, especially once Springtime rolls around. Oh well. I'll figure that out later.
I think Logan is really going to like this team, though. The new coach made it through the whole practice without yelling once. Every team has its advantages and disadvantages. I'm still very happy that he's on this team, though.
I hope we don't do much in the way of Fall workouts. The kids get worn out and there's just not much benefit to them. I guess they keep the kids thinking about baseball, though. Personally, I'd like to see them put baseball aside until after basketball season is over, though.
Logan is by far one of the faster kids on the team. His old team, he was probably dead middle of the pack. Didn't really see them hit much, but Logan really should be one of the better hitters on the team. Fielding? He really didn't look that different than the other kids. Maybe a little better than some, but they all looked rusty.
The coach is a new one who doesn't have a kid on the team. I was one of only 3 dads helping with the practice. I really don't have time to commit to this, especially once Springtime rolls around. Oh well. I'll figure that out later.
I think Logan is really going to like this team, though. The new coach made it through the whole practice without yelling once. Every team has its advantages and disadvantages. I'm still very happy that he's on this team, though.
I hope we don't do much in the way of Fall workouts. The kids get worn out and there's just not much benefit to them. I guess they keep the kids thinking about baseball, though. Personally, I'd like to see them put baseball aside until after basketball season is over, though.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Northview Black Wins!!!
Logan's team won its football game today, 16-8. (In this league, a kick for a PAT scores 2 points.)
Logan was out for a few plays after complaining that he got his bell rung. I really don't like his helmet. I see it's some sort of reconditioned helmet that probably wasn't that nice to begin with. Almost all the helmets these days are pumped up with air and I don't think this one is working properly.
I'm going to buy him a helmet. The season is halfway through, but I don't want this kid getting a concussion.
The whole shebang costs less than $200. I can get one through Amazon Prime, so it'll arrive this week. I know that doesn't sound like a good use of money, but I've never been one to skimp, especially where there's a chance of preventing a mishap for my son.
I'm not sure how bad he's getting his bell rung, but it's bad enough that he'll miss a few plays now and then. I'm already counting on the likelihood that the helmet won't fit him next year, but who knows.
Logan had a great game today. Completed two passes. Ran the ball tough up the middle. Had three runs in particular that were pretty big. Two first downs and when we had the ball on the 6, he ran it to the 3, where the QB punched it in the next play.
Got roughed up a bit, but if he wants to play fullback, he needs to get used to it. I don't get to worried about injuries except for knees and concussions. Both of those are the types of injuries that don't ever really heal.
Anyway, great win today. The team we played was the other Northview team. I think because so many of their kids go to school with our kids, they came in really fired up. Looked dire until the 4th quarter. They went up 8-0. We pounded the ball in for one TD. We converted our kick.
So, rather than settle for the tie, they threw the ball deep and we picked it. That set up the winning drive just as time expired.
The team, overall, is 1-1-1. However, the loss and the tie could just as easily have been wins. We've played all 3 other teams in the league. Now, we play them one more time, then the season is over.
Logan was out for a few plays after complaining that he got his bell rung. I really don't like his helmet. I see it's some sort of reconditioned helmet that probably wasn't that nice to begin with. Almost all the helmets these days are pumped up with air and I don't think this one is working properly.
I'm going to buy him a helmet. The season is halfway through, but I don't want this kid getting a concussion.
The whole shebang costs less than $200. I can get one through Amazon Prime, so it'll arrive this week. I know that doesn't sound like a good use of money, but I've never been one to skimp, especially where there's a chance of preventing a mishap for my son.
I'm not sure how bad he's getting his bell rung, but it's bad enough that he'll miss a few plays now and then. I'm already counting on the likelihood that the helmet won't fit him next year, but who knows.
Logan had a great game today. Completed two passes. Ran the ball tough up the middle. Had three runs in particular that were pretty big. Two first downs and when we had the ball on the 6, he ran it to the 3, where the QB punched it in the next play.
Got roughed up a bit, but if he wants to play fullback, he needs to get used to it. I don't get to worried about injuries except for knees and concussions. Both of those are the types of injuries that don't ever really heal.
Anyway, great win today. The team we played was the other Northview team. I think because so many of their kids go to school with our kids, they came in really fired up. Looked dire until the 4th quarter. They went up 8-0. We pounded the ball in for one TD. We converted our kick.
So, rather than settle for the tie, they threw the ball deep and we picked it. That set up the winning drive just as time expired.
The team, overall, is 1-1-1. However, the loss and the tie could just as easily have been wins. We've played all 3 other teams in the league. Now, we play them one more time, then the season is over.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Friday Night Lights
I remember a member of the military telling me that when they went to basic training, their drill instructor gave them a speech. The speech began, "Today is the first day you wear the uniform. Just as there is a first day, you wear the uniform, there will be a last day..."
That really puts into perspective that something that is seemingly mundane will, eventually, be a large part of your life. It may be only a temporary chapter, but it will be a significant one. It will be a season that will come and go. Because of that, a servicemember should always strive to make their time in uniform a truly remarkable time.
This is my son's first year in a football uniform.
Baseball, as I have often said, is the most beautiful sport. It is elegant and graceful. It is explosive in exictement and operatic in tempo. It is the sport of poets and writers for a reason. It is said that you can't play baseball through clenched teeth. It is a game played with artistry and finesse. It is not played with anger.
Football, however, is a sport played on emotion. It's a much more perfect foil to the soul of a person.
Logan just started playing actual football (prior to this, he played flag.) He wears a real helmet and real gear. He hits and gets hit. He understands a new, informal set of rules like, "you should never play if you are injured, but you will almost always play hurt."
Football asks a lot of a person. Especially when those people are ten years old.
You can already tell a lot about the kids on the team. Some of my favorite players on the team are the tackles. Tackles are big, strong, usually heavy kids who are powerful and hard to move around. In most sports, these kids are at a disadvantage. They aren't fleet of feet. The muscles that give them the power to fend off a defensive lineman almost certainly guarantee that they won't ever hit a curveball.
That's one of the beauties of football, though. You can have a wide variety of types of body and still play. Basketball? Basically, it favors one type of body, that just comes in slightly different sizes and quicknesses. Baseball? You could take the better half of Logan's travel team and each kid wouldn't look all that different than the next. They all have basically the same traits: good eyes, quick hands, fast feet. Some are better than others, but they are all pretty much capable of doing the same things.
Football, though? A wide range of body types can play the sport. These tackles love the game. They're really good at it and they finally have a game where they can compete and win. We are also blessed with a couple of tackles who it is easy to see will grow up to be remarkable young men.
Another player on the team has been Logan's lifelong friend. He isn't the biggest or fastest, but he's fearless and will lower his shoulders and take on anybody. He's the team's "Rudy", playing with all the heart he can muster.
A couple of other kids on the team are troubled souls. It is amazing to me that the discipline of being on this team is changing them in profound ways.
One of them gets into a good bit of trouble at school. He was a bit unmanageable during the first few weeks of practice, but when he realized what was going on, he started to behave. I've been trying to find a starting position for him for the past couple of weeks, now. This might be the week he gets it.
Another has problems that run pretty deep. Probably some considerable learning problems and a pretty obvious case of ADHD. At first, I was convinced that it was ridiculous that we had to deal with him. We're not special ed teachers. We're volunteer coaches.
If he was going to stay on the team, though, he was going to have to do the same things everybody else on the team did. He was going to meet the same standard. I have ridden this kid pretty hard. I've made him run laps when he misbehaved. I've told him that whining and complaining have no place here.
At one practice, between plays, he'd jokingly half-tackle me. I'd tell him to knock it off. I'd ask him, "hey, is that smart?" when he'd wrap his arms around me when I wasn't looking.
One of the other kids asked, "Is he your son?"
No, why do you think he's my son? "Because he's always hugging you."
I wondered if that was what he was doing. Today for team pictures, he immediately tried to change seats once I sat down and said, "I'm gonna sit by Coach Strebler."
Why in the world would this kid ever feel any affection towards me? I'm fair, but I've certainly been hard, and he's gotten more than his fair share of attention, usually not positive. However, I'm also quick to compliment a kid when they do something right. I'll point out when they're showing improvement.
I also don't ever yell at kids. I may tell them to run laps. I may tell them to get up. I don't raise my voice at them except to praise them during a game.
Who knows what the rest of this kid's life is like. He seems to be angry and doesn't interact well with other kids. I suspect that a lot of the communication he gets isn't very positive.
I'm still undecided as to whether having this kid on the team is good for the team at all. His behavioral problems are so profound that he takes one entire coach away from the team at every practice. However, the difference in him? It's stark. He is benefitting from this experience.
It's amazing how much genuine affection I feel for everybody on the team. It's also amazing to me how quickly this whole thing is happening.
They will have 1 more year of youth football in pads, then 2 years of middle school. Then, Freshman Football in High School.
Just as there is a first season of football, there will be a last season of football. Just as my son will put his uniforms away, so will I also put away the era of my life when my son was a football player.
Because I know this, I cherish every moment of every game. Every minute of every practice. When I see the pageantry and spectacle of the high school football games, I get a little bit emotional. That will be him, soon. Then, just as quickly as his time in uniform came, it will go, and another generation will step up for their days under the Friday night lights.
That really puts into perspective that something that is seemingly mundane will, eventually, be a large part of your life. It may be only a temporary chapter, but it will be a significant one. It will be a season that will come and go. Because of that, a servicemember should always strive to make their time in uniform a truly remarkable time.
This is my son's first year in a football uniform.
Baseball, as I have often said, is the most beautiful sport. It is elegant and graceful. It is explosive in exictement and operatic in tempo. It is the sport of poets and writers for a reason. It is said that you can't play baseball through clenched teeth. It is a game played with artistry and finesse. It is not played with anger.
Football, however, is a sport played on emotion. It's a much more perfect foil to the soul of a person.
Logan just started playing actual football (prior to this, he played flag.) He wears a real helmet and real gear. He hits and gets hit. He understands a new, informal set of rules like, "you should never play if you are injured, but you will almost always play hurt."
Football asks a lot of a person. Especially when those people are ten years old.
You can already tell a lot about the kids on the team. Some of my favorite players on the team are the tackles. Tackles are big, strong, usually heavy kids who are powerful and hard to move around. In most sports, these kids are at a disadvantage. They aren't fleet of feet. The muscles that give them the power to fend off a defensive lineman almost certainly guarantee that they won't ever hit a curveball.
That's one of the beauties of football, though. You can have a wide variety of types of body and still play. Basketball? Basically, it favors one type of body, that just comes in slightly different sizes and quicknesses. Baseball? You could take the better half of Logan's travel team and each kid wouldn't look all that different than the next. They all have basically the same traits: good eyes, quick hands, fast feet. Some are better than others, but they are all pretty much capable of doing the same things.
Football, though? A wide range of body types can play the sport. These tackles love the game. They're really good at it and they finally have a game where they can compete and win. We are also blessed with a couple of tackles who it is easy to see will grow up to be remarkable young men.
Another player on the team has been Logan's lifelong friend. He isn't the biggest or fastest, but he's fearless and will lower his shoulders and take on anybody. He's the team's "Rudy", playing with all the heart he can muster.
A couple of other kids on the team are troubled souls. It is amazing to me that the discipline of being on this team is changing them in profound ways.
One of them gets into a good bit of trouble at school. He was a bit unmanageable during the first few weeks of practice, but when he realized what was going on, he started to behave. I've been trying to find a starting position for him for the past couple of weeks, now. This might be the week he gets it.
Another has problems that run pretty deep. Probably some considerable learning problems and a pretty obvious case of ADHD. At first, I was convinced that it was ridiculous that we had to deal with him. We're not special ed teachers. We're volunteer coaches.
If he was going to stay on the team, though, he was going to have to do the same things everybody else on the team did. He was going to meet the same standard. I have ridden this kid pretty hard. I've made him run laps when he misbehaved. I've told him that whining and complaining have no place here.
At one practice, between plays, he'd jokingly half-tackle me. I'd tell him to knock it off. I'd ask him, "hey, is that smart?" when he'd wrap his arms around me when I wasn't looking.
One of the other kids asked, "Is he your son?"
No, why do you think he's my son? "Because he's always hugging you."
I wondered if that was what he was doing. Today for team pictures, he immediately tried to change seats once I sat down and said, "I'm gonna sit by Coach Strebler."
Why in the world would this kid ever feel any affection towards me? I'm fair, but I've certainly been hard, and he's gotten more than his fair share of attention, usually not positive. However, I'm also quick to compliment a kid when they do something right. I'll point out when they're showing improvement.
I also don't ever yell at kids. I may tell them to run laps. I may tell them to get up. I don't raise my voice at them except to praise them during a game.
Who knows what the rest of this kid's life is like. He seems to be angry and doesn't interact well with other kids. I suspect that a lot of the communication he gets isn't very positive.
I'm still undecided as to whether having this kid on the team is good for the team at all. His behavioral problems are so profound that he takes one entire coach away from the team at every practice. However, the difference in him? It's stark. He is benefitting from this experience.
It's amazing how much genuine affection I feel for everybody on the team. It's also amazing to me how quickly this whole thing is happening.
They will have 1 more year of youth football in pads, then 2 years of middle school. Then, Freshman Football in High School.
Just as there is a first season of football, there will be a last season of football. Just as my son will put his uniforms away, so will I also put away the era of my life when my son was a football player.
Because I know this, I cherish every moment of every game. Every minute of every practice. When I see the pageantry and spectacle of the high school football games, I get a little bit emotional. That will be him, soon. Then, just as quickly as his time in uniform came, it will go, and another generation will step up for their days under the Friday night lights.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
The boys drop their season opener in football
Boys did a pretty good job at the football game today, but lost 14-12. It's amazing how much heart these guys put into the game. Football is a game played on emotion to a far greater degree than baseball or even basketball. Some of the kids on the team really, really care about this.
We'll get 'em next time. I thought the boys did a good job. I feel like the coaches learned more today than the kids did.
It's hard to coach in this league. For instance, the quarters are only six minutes. Literally, the first half went like this: they had the ball first, punted, we drove and got the ball down into the red-zone and the half ended. 0-0 at the half.
Seriously, it went by that fast. Figure at this age, the clock runs between plays almost all the time because there's not a lot of passing.
I thought we beat them on both sides of the ball, but they beat us on 2 plays that resulted in TDs.
Hard to coach in this league, too. Every player is supposed to get 12 plays per game, which is darned near impossible. It basically means that everybody gets equal playing time.
For some kids, not such a big deal, but we have other kids (and one in particular) who is a behavioral problem and ends up being a danger to himself and others on the field. Ah well. Rec league sports. Can't do anything about it
This football league only lasts for 2 years, then they're in middle school where, I would hope, you don't have to give the worst player (or the biggest problem child) on the team the same amount of playing time as the better players.
Seems like a lot of the rec league rules are based on parents complaints. I'm sure a lot of folks have complained over the years that their kid is not getting enough playing time, etc.
Logan did okay. Had a few tackles including one of his patented "cross the field to the opposite side" tackles. On offense, he got open for a pass, but the pass sailed high.
So far, so good. The boys did well and they'll get one more crack at this team before the season is over.
We'll get 'em next time. I thought the boys did a good job. I feel like the coaches learned more today than the kids did.
It's hard to coach in this league. For instance, the quarters are only six minutes. Literally, the first half went like this: they had the ball first, punted, we drove and got the ball down into the red-zone and the half ended. 0-0 at the half.
Seriously, it went by that fast. Figure at this age, the clock runs between plays almost all the time because there's not a lot of passing.
I thought we beat them on both sides of the ball, but they beat us on 2 plays that resulted in TDs.
Hard to coach in this league, too. Every player is supposed to get 12 plays per game, which is darned near impossible. It basically means that everybody gets equal playing time.
For some kids, not such a big deal, but we have other kids (and one in particular) who is a behavioral problem and ends up being a danger to himself and others on the field. Ah well. Rec league sports. Can't do anything about it
This football league only lasts for 2 years, then they're in middle school where, I would hope, you don't have to give the worst player (or the biggest problem child) on the team the same amount of playing time as the better players.
Seems like a lot of the rec league rules are based on parents complaints. I'm sure a lot of folks have complained over the years that their kid is not getting enough playing time, etc.
Logan did okay. Had a few tackles including one of his patented "cross the field to the opposite side" tackles. On offense, he got open for a pass, but the pass sailed high.
So far, so good. The boys did well and they'll get one more crack at this team before the season is over.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
After the Storm
Funny thing, but I had a chance to really talk out the situation with my son's baseball with a couple of great parents from last year's team and now I feel pretty good about things. I think it just helps sometimes to talk things out with a patient listener, and to just get things off your chest.
In the final analysis, my opinion is unchanged. However, now, I think I accept it emotionally as well as intellectually.
Basically, it boils down to:
1. The tryout process is imperfect.
2. It is fair in the sense that no kid gets preferrence over any other kid.
3. Generally speaking, it gets things pretty much right, most of the time.
4. Every once in a while, they're going to make a mistake.
I don't think anybody who saw my boy play last year would say that he wasn't one of the better players on his team. So, for him not to make the team this year is probably an indication that things went awry one way or another.
However, it's not like he didn't make any team at all. He made the black / B / light team. He'll still play travel ball, though on a team that's a step down from his team from last year.
Again, I think this is actually a better situation for him. I think it'll open up doors for him to develop both infielding skills and pitching skills.
If he continued to play on A, he would have continued to be a gold-glove-caliber center fielder, but would also have reached his high school tryout having played virtually no infield at all.
He'll also get the chance to pitch, now.
On his previous team, he showed good fundamentals at infield. It's just that there were 4 kids on the team who were better. The league was competitive, and despite the coach's best efforts, the best he could manage averaged out to maybe an inning of infield every 8 games or so.
Pitching, same story. Logan needed a lot more work to develop into a pitcher and he just wasn't getting it on his old team.
Although the analogy isn't flattering, this is a little like going back down to AAA ball to work on some skills so you can come back better than before.
So, although this is disappointing and was a little shock to the system, I think, ultimately, that this is the best move for the boy's future development as a baseball player.
Now, the A team loses it's star center fielder, and a player who led the team in OBP. They picked up a couple of good players. All in all, for the A team, I think they came out a little better off.
The B team (my son's new team) picked up a guy who was one of the better players on A. They also picked up a very athletic kid who had previously been playing rec. I think, overall, they're much, much better as a team than they were last year.
In the A versus B game last year, B gave them a hard time. They eventually lost, but this year, who knows. On the right day, maybe they win. I'd say the B team rose from being a team who could beat A 1 time in 10 to maybe a team that beats A 3 times in 10.
Also, I think my son will benefit from playing for a different coach. Not so much that the old coach was bad in any way. I thought the world of him and he gave 100%, every day to these kids.
It's just that a new coach will bring different strengths and teach different things. This is the chance to study under two masters.
Though it was sort of funny. One of the other parents who saw my boy during the football scrimmage where he got hurt, said that although my boy may play baseball in high school, his sport is probably going to be football.
Lots of things can happen or not between now and then, but based on what I saw in that scrimmage, I think he may be right. The boy was a force to be reckoned with on the football field.
So, I think I internalized the realities of the baseball situation. Ultimately, I think they made a mistake, but they made it the right way. The tryout process, though flawed, is fair in the sense that it gives each kid an equal chance. For whatever reason, Logan didn't accumulate enough points on day 1, and a couple of other kids accumulated more.
I really wouldn't have it any other way. Those kids earned their spots and they should get them. In the final wash, Logan ended up in a better situation.
So, this is one of those rare win-wins.
In the final analysis, my opinion is unchanged. However, now, I think I accept it emotionally as well as intellectually.
Basically, it boils down to:
1. The tryout process is imperfect.
2. It is fair in the sense that no kid gets preferrence over any other kid.
3. Generally speaking, it gets things pretty much right, most of the time.
4. Every once in a while, they're going to make a mistake.
I don't think anybody who saw my boy play last year would say that he wasn't one of the better players on his team. So, for him not to make the team this year is probably an indication that things went awry one way or another.
However, it's not like he didn't make any team at all. He made the black / B / light team. He'll still play travel ball, though on a team that's a step down from his team from last year.
Again, I think this is actually a better situation for him. I think it'll open up doors for him to develop both infielding skills and pitching skills.
If he continued to play on A, he would have continued to be a gold-glove-caliber center fielder, but would also have reached his high school tryout having played virtually no infield at all.
He'll also get the chance to pitch, now.
On his previous team, he showed good fundamentals at infield. It's just that there were 4 kids on the team who were better. The league was competitive, and despite the coach's best efforts, the best he could manage averaged out to maybe an inning of infield every 8 games or so.
Pitching, same story. Logan needed a lot more work to develop into a pitcher and he just wasn't getting it on his old team.
Although the analogy isn't flattering, this is a little like going back down to AAA ball to work on some skills so you can come back better than before.
So, although this is disappointing and was a little shock to the system, I think, ultimately, that this is the best move for the boy's future development as a baseball player.
Now, the A team loses it's star center fielder, and a player who led the team in OBP. They picked up a couple of good players. All in all, for the A team, I think they came out a little better off.
The B team (my son's new team) picked up a guy who was one of the better players on A. They also picked up a very athletic kid who had previously been playing rec. I think, overall, they're much, much better as a team than they were last year.
In the A versus B game last year, B gave them a hard time. They eventually lost, but this year, who knows. On the right day, maybe they win. I'd say the B team rose from being a team who could beat A 1 time in 10 to maybe a team that beats A 3 times in 10.
Also, I think my son will benefit from playing for a different coach. Not so much that the old coach was bad in any way. I thought the world of him and he gave 100%, every day to these kids.
It's just that a new coach will bring different strengths and teach different things. This is the chance to study under two masters.
Though it was sort of funny. One of the other parents who saw my boy during the football scrimmage where he got hurt, said that although my boy may play baseball in high school, his sport is probably going to be football.
Lots of things can happen or not between now and then, but based on what I saw in that scrimmage, I think he may be right. The boy was a force to be reckoned with on the football field.
So, I think I internalized the realities of the baseball situation. Ultimately, I think they made a mistake, but they made it the right way. The tryout process, though flawed, is fair in the sense that it gives each kid an equal chance. For whatever reason, Logan didn't accumulate enough points on day 1, and a couple of other kids accumulated more.
I really wouldn't have it any other way. Those kids earned their spots and they should get them. In the final wash, Logan ended up in a better situation.
So, this is one of those rare win-wins.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Really good news
Just got a call from one of the light team dads to ask if Logan was going to play for Mavs light next year.
I was considering trying to find a different team for him. There are a lot of teams where he'd have been a great acquisition for them. Mavs light is here local, though, and keeps him in the Mavericks system.
That was always the way I was leaning, but right now, I'm sure that's what we need to do. They're getting one of the assistant coaches from the High School to coach the team. The team's manager is a guy I know who is really a good guy.
I think there's a lot of upside to Logan being on that team.
I'm still a little frustrated after the results of the tryouts, but I honestly think this is a better opportunity for Logan. This should be a great year.
I was considering trying to find a different team for him. There are a lot of teams where he'd have been a great acquisition for them. Mavs light is here local, though, and keeps him in the Mavericks system.
That was always the way I was leaning, but right now, I'm sure that's what we need to do. They're getting one of the assistant coaches from the High School to coach the team. The team's manager is a guy I know who is really a good guy.
I think there's a lot of upside to Logan being on that team.
I'm still a little frustrated after the results of the tryouts, but I honestly think this is a better opportunity for Logan. This should be a great year.
Friday, September 2, 2011
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the worst of times...
This year's tryouts for Mavs baseball didn't quite go like I expected.
I watched the tryouts and thought that my son played fine. However, after a few days, we got a call that said they wanted to put Logan through an additional assessment.
My guess is that a few kids did really well and were going to displace Logan, but the Mavs wanted to be able to compare the kids head-to-head.
Problem was, Logan had a football scrimmage the night before. Gashed his knee open. Took him to the ER and he needed stitches. So, he couldn't do anything athletic for a week.
The Mavs tryouts are, in my opinion, fair. They're not perfect. There are some rather obvious problems with them. However, the team is a community resource and as such, they really try to do what they can to make the process as fair as they can.
They don't share a lot of the rationale behind their decisions. That makes sense to me. There comes a time when you have to name a team and that's that.
In my opinion, the system they've set up gets things pretty much right, most of the time. However, it has the potential every now and then to really blow it.
I think that's what happened with Logan.
First day of the tryouts, which is basically the only day anything happens, they're evaluating the players on the classic "5 tools".
On one of the fielding stations, the players are graded on fielding three line drives and making throws to first.
Logan made two of the plays. The third one, though, was simply impossible for him to get. He ranged and dove and really did everything humanly possible, but the ball was still beyond his glove. Nobody could have made the play.
They mark up these scoresheets, and I've always wondered what they did in a case like that. Is there a way to note that although he didn't make the play, that it wasn't possible and that he gave 100% trying?
I doubt it. I bet after that station, he got marked for making 2 good catches and 2 good throws, and that was it.
Even though it was a pitching machine that was shooting the balls out, there was a lot of inconsistency there. Most of the kids were able to make all 3 plays, and some barely had to move.
That's baseball, and that's the frustrating thing about it. You can't be purely objective. However, once you add subjectivity, you muddy the waters.
The next station involved fielding pop flies. I'm not exaggerating that on Logan's team, nobody was as good as he was at tracking and catching fly balls. In fact, from what I saw in league play, if they'd have given a gold glove for center fielders, Logan would have been in the running for it.
I didn't even watch the station. However, even there, things were a little inconsistent. One of the other dads whose kid was in Logan's group told me what he saw.
Instead of using a pitching machine, they had a guy hitting balls with a bat. The boys were supposed to cover an area inside 4 cones. One of Logan's balls was hit outside the cones and to a place where, again, there was no way for him to possibly make the play.
Generally speaking, you expect little errors like that to even themselves out, but this is a very small sample set. It's possible to roll snake-eyes several times in a row.
Personally, I think if they run that same tryout 100 times, my son makes the A team 97 of them or more. Just a bad day. He got bad luck on a few things. He didn't have his greatest performance on another, and in the end, he ends up getting hosed on the final number.
Now, do I think it's right? No. But do I think it's fair? Yes. I really do.
They have to have some way to make decisions. The best way would be to analyze last season's performance. If they did that, my son would have made the team without even a moment's thought. He led the team in OBP, was beaten out by only 4 other guys on the team in hitting (and he was really close to 2 of them), and he played phenomenal defense last year, not just ranging all over the outfield, but making a few highlight reel throws, too.
Trouble is, what do you do with kids who didn't play on the Mavs heavy team? Or kids who are coming from rec? Or kids who moved here from out of town?
They need a way to put all the kids on even footing and having a tryout and assessing ONLY what happens during the tryout is the fairest way to do it.
Now, I think they could improve the format of the tryout, even in a 2 day tryout. For some reason, some genius decided that they'd evaluate skills on day 1, but on day 2, they'd put the boys in "game situations" and evaluate their play that way.
Trouble is, there's no way to evaluate anything on day 2. My son ended up playing right field almost the entire day, except for the inning he played catcher. (He is not a catcher). Half the kids pitching are not pitchers, they're just trying out. So, the kids don't get anything to hit.
It's a total waste of time. However, it was probably implemented because some parent whose kid didn't make the team griped that despite skills, their kid would do better in games. Thing is, it's not a game. It doesn't even rise to the level of a scrimmage. It's a total waste of time.
Also, some whiney parent complained and now parents aren't allowed near the kids (in the spectator areas) during tryouts. This might have come into play because for some reason, Logan decided to use a practice bat (that's 1 ounce heavier) than his usual bat for the tryout. Why? Because he's 10. It made sense to him. If I'd have been there, I'd have had him use the right bat.
Chalk up another victory for stupid rules that came about because some loser complained.
A 2 day tryout is bad enough, but since they basically waste the 2nd day, they basically have turned this into a 1 day tryout, which reduces an already small sample size by half. If only 2 of your fly balls are catchable? Oh well. You caught 2 out of 3. If only 2 of your line drives are catchable? Oh well.
So, that's what I mean by it's fair, but it's imperfect and clearly flawed. All the kids have the same shot at it, but the way it shakes out, some of them are going to be dealt a crappy hand and that's that.
As I've pointed out many, many times before, baseball is the most subjective of sports from a coaching / team selection standpoint. Throw in the fact that some players are great in practice but absolutely stink at game time and it's very, very difficult to know who should and shouldn't be on a team sometimes.
The best a coach can do is make their best guess and go with it. Usually, they're right.
Once in a while, they're wrong. Everybody knows that this is just a normal part of baseball.
They blew it on this one, though. The Mavs heavy team just lost one of their best players from last year. Not just as his Dad, but even the raw numbers are indisputable.
He can play on the light team, though. I will be pinging a few other travel teams, but at this point, I'm guessing they've got their rosters set.
However, there's a team somewhere that would take him in a heartbeat. He was one of the better players on one of the better teams in 10U last year.
That, alone, should put him in good shape for finding an 11U team that needs a player.
However, the other thing to consider is that he's also eligible to play 10U again because of his age.
Which means he will likely be one of the better players in 11U, or can play down a year and probably be an utterly dominant player in 10U if he plays that division again.
If he ends up playing Mavs light (which is likely), I think there's a lot of upside there, too. Logan really didn't get any infield or pitching time last year. Infield, he got less than a lot of players who were clearly not as good as he was, because he had a position he was great at: CF.
Pitching? He really needed some work there, and with things being how they were, he wasn't going to get it.
Also, despite his great offensive numbers, he spent almost the entire season in the bottom half of the batting order.
That's just the way things go when you have a lot of talented players on your team. If I had to rank him, on the heavy team, there was a top group of players, a middle group, and a bottom group. In 9U, he was in the middle group, but towards the bottom of it. In 10U, he was in the middle group, but towards the top of it and sometimes making a case that he was in the top group.
If he continues this trajectory, I think he would have been in the top group of players next year.
Next year, though, if he plays Mavs Black, there's no reason why he wouldn't start in the infield and he will probably have to pitch. Also, with his offensive abilities, I would think he'd find himself somewhere in the top 5 in the batting order.
So, in a lot of ways, I'm happier that he'll be playing Mavs light next year. I think for his overall development, this may actually be a better situation for him.
So, not-making the heavy team for the first time is a disappointment, but I think the end result is good and maybe even a little better than making the heavy team.
Right now, he's focused on football, though. Until he was injured, he was a dominant force on the field, especially on defense.
His stitches should be coming out next Thursday or so. So, he will at least be able to suit up for the scrimmages on Saturday. It'll give him a week or so to get in the swing of things before the first game of the season.
The stitches are sort of unfortunate, especially because they kept Logan from being able to do another assessment that might have kept him on the heavy team.
Still, all in all, things have worked out well. I'm sort of excited at the prospect of seeing my kid play some new positions next year.
In the mean time, the football season starts soon. Then, I gotta get the boy ready for basketball tryouts.
I watched the tryouts and thought that my son played fine. However, after a few days, we got a call that said they wanted to put Logan through an additional assessment.
My guess is that a few kids did really well and were going to displace Logan, but the Mavs wanted to be able to compare the kids head-to-head.
Problem was, Logan had a football scrimmage the night before. Gashed his knee open. Took him to the ER and he needed stitches. So, he couldn't do anything athletic for a week.
The Mavs tryouts are, in my opinion, fair. They're not perfect. There are some rather obvious problems with them. However, the team is a community resource and as such, they really try to do what they can to make the process as fair as they can.
They don't share a lot of the rationale behind their decisions. That makes sense to me. There comes a time when you have to name a team and that's that.
In my opinion, the system they've set up gets things pretty much right, most of the time. However, it has the potential every now and then to really blow it.
I think that's what happened with Logan.
First day of the tryouts, which is basically the only day anything happens, they're evaluating the players on the classic "5 tools".
On one of the fielding stations, the players are graded on fielding three line drives and making throws to first.
Logan made two of the plays. The third one, though, was simply impossible for him to get. He ranged and dove and really did everything humanly possible, but the ball was still beyond his glove. Nobody could have made the play.
They mark up these scoresheets, and I've always wondered what they did in a case like that. Is there a way to note that although he didn't make the play, that it wasn't possible and that he gave 100% trying?
I doubt it. I bet after that station, he got marked for making 2 good catches and 2 good throws, and that was it.
Even though it was a pitching machine that was shooting the balls out, there was a lot of inconsistency there. Most of the kids were able to make all 3 plays, and some barely had to move.
That's baseball, and that's the frustrating thing about it. You can't be purely objective. However, once you add subjectivity, you muddy the waters.
The next station involved fielding pop flies. I'm not exaggerating that on Logan's team, nobody was as good as he was at tracking and catching fly balls. In fact, from what I saw in league play, if they'd have given a gold glove for center fielders, Logan would have been in the running for it.
I didn't even watch the station. However, even there, things were a little inconsistent. One of the other dads whose kid was in Logan's group told me what he saw.
Instead of using a pitching machine, they had a guy hitting balls with a bat. The boys were supposed to cover an area inside 4 cones. One of Logan's balls was hit outside the cones and to a place where, again, there was no way for him to possibly make the play.
Generally speaking, you expect little errors like that to even themselves out, but this is a very small sample set. It's possible to roll snake-eyes several times in a row.
Personally, I think if they run that same tryout 100 times, my son makes the A team 97 of them or more. Just a bad day. He got bad luck on a few things. He didn't have his greatest performance on another, and in the end, he ends up getting hosed on the final number.
Now, do I think it's right? No. But do I think it's fair? Yes. I really do.
They have to have some way to make decisions. The best way would be to analyze last season's performance. If they did that, my son would have made the team without even a moment's thought. He led the team in OBP, was beaten out by only 4 other guys on the team in hitting (and he was really close to 2 of them), and he played phenomenal defense last year, not just ranging all over the outfield, but making a few highlight reel throws, too.
Trouble is, what do you do with kids who didn't play on the Mavs heavy team? Or kids who are coming from rec? Or kids who moved here from out of town?
They need a way to put all the kids on even footing and having a tryout and assessing ONLY what happens during the tryout is the fairest way to do it.
Now, I think they could improve the format of the tryout, even in a 2 day tryout. For some reason, some genius decided that they'd evaluate skills on day 1, but on day 2, they'd put the boys in "game situations" and evaluate their play that way.
Trouble is, there's no way to evaluate anything on day 2. My son ended up playing right field almost the entire day, except for the inning he played catcher. (He is not a catcher). Half the kids pitching are not pitchers, they're just trying out. So, the kids don't get anything to hit.
It's a total waste of time. However, it was probably implemented because some parent whose kid didn't make the team griped that despite skills, their kid would do better in games. Thing is, it's not a game. It doesn't even rise to the level of a scrimmage. It's a total waste of time.
Also, some whiney parent complained and now parents aren't allowed near the kids (in the spectator areas) during tryouts. This might have come into play because for some reason, Logan decided to use a practice bat (that's 1 ounce heavier) than his usual bat for the tryout. Why? Because he's 10. It made sense to him. If I'd have been there, I'd have had him use the right bat.
Chalk up another victory for stupid rules that came about because some loser complained.
A 2 day tryout is bad enough, but since they basically waste the 2nd day, they basically have turned this into a 1 day tryout, which reduces an already small sample size by half. If only 2 of your fly balls are catchable? Oh well. You caught 2 out of 3. If only 2 of your line drives are catchable? Oh well.
So, that's what I mean by it's fair, but it's imperfect and clearly flawed. All the kids have the same shot at it, but the way it shakes out, some of them are going to be dealt a crappy hand and that's that.
As I've pointed out many, many times before, baseball is the most subjective of sports from a coaching / team selection standpoint. Throw in the fact that some players are great in practice but absolutely stink at game time and it's very, very difficult to know who should and shouldn't be on a team sometimes.
The best a coach can do is make their best guess and go with it. Usually, they're right.
Once in a while, they're wrong. Everybody knows that this is just a normal part of baseball.
They blew it on this one, though. The Mavs heavy team just lost one of their best players from last year. Not just as his Dad, but even the raw numbers are indisputable.
He can play on the light team, though. I will be pinging a few other travel teams, but at this point, I'm guessing they've got their rosters set.
However, there's a team somewhere that would take him in a heartbeat. He was one of the better players on one of the better teams in 10U last year.
That, alone, should put him in good shape for finding an 11U team that needs a player.
However, the other thing to consider is that he's also eligible to play 10U again because of his age.
Which means he will likely be one of the better players in 11U, or can play down a year and probably be an utterly dominant player in 10U if he plays that division again.
If he ends up playing Mavs light (which is likely), I think there's a lot of upside there, too. Logan really didn't get any infield or pitching time last year. Infield, he got less than a lot of players who were clearly not as good as he was, because he had a position he was great at: CF.
Pitching? He really needed some work there, and with things being how they were, he wasn't going to get it.
Also, despite his great offensive numbers, he spent almost the entire season in the bottom half of the batting order.
That's just the way things go when you have a lot of talented players on your team. If I had to rank him, on the heavy team, there was a top group of players, a middle group, and a bottom group. In 9U, he was in the middle group, but towards the bottom of it. In 10U, he was in the middle group, but towards the top of it and sometimes making a case that he was in the top group.
If he continues this trajectory, I think he would have been in the top group of players next year.
Next year, though, if he plays Mavs Black, there's no reason why he wouldn't start in the infield and he will probably have to pitch. Also, with his offensive abilities, I would think he'd find himself somewhere in the top 5 in the batting order.
So, in a lot of ways, I'm happier that he'll be playing Mavs light next year. I think for his overall development, this may actually be a better situation for him.
So, not-making the heavy team for the first time is a disappointment, but I think the end result is good and maybe even a little better than making the heavy team.
Right now, he's focused on football, though. Until he was injured, he was a dominant force on the field, especially on defense.
His stitches should be coming out next Thursday or so. So, he will at least be able to suit up for the scrimmages on Saturday. It'll give him a week or so to get in the swing of things before the first game of the season.
The stitches are sort of unfortunate, especially because they kept Logan from being able to do another assessment that might have kept him on the heavy team.
Still, all in all, things have worked out well. I'm sort of excited at the prospect of seeing my kid play some new positions next year.
In the mean time, the football season starts soon. Then, I gotta get the boy ready for basketball tryouts.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Football Baseball and Basketball, OH MY!
Logan has been doing great at the football practices. I'm really proud of the kid. I think football is going to end up being his favorite sport. He's been doing great at it.
Part of it is that it combines a few of his key strenghts. His size and speed are both pretty good. (Though he's not the biggest or fastest on his team.) The other is that he loves to rough-house. The kid would wrestle all day if you let him.
Still not sure of his position, but it's looking like either Tight End or Running Back. They do their first scrimmage on Thursday. Nobody really has their permanent position, yet.
Baseball tryouts started today. I'm a lot more relaxed this year. He's coming off a much better season this year than he did last. I really don't see how he wouldn't make one of the two Mavs teams.
In a week, I should know whether he made a team, and what team he made.
Part of it is that it combines a few of his key strenghts. His size and speed are both pretty good. (Though he's not the biggest or fastest on his team.) The other is that he loves to rough-house. The kid would wrestle all day if you let him.
Still not sure of his position, but it's looking like either Tight End or Running Back. They do their first scrimmage on Thursday. Nobody really has their permanent position, yet.
Baseball tryouts started today. I'm a lot more relaxed this year. He's coming off a much better season this year than he did last. I really don't see how he wouldn't make one of the two Mavs teams.
In a week, I should know whether he made a team, and what team he made.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Wrestling and Title IX
My son is doing well in basketball, but generally speaking, basketball is the most competitive of the High School sports. It's the hardest team to make. They have fewer spots, and the kids are more competitive, early.
My son is energetic and athletic, and I can't imagine that he'd ever sit out the Winter sports season. So, if for some reason he doesn't make the basketball team in High School, he's got a couple of options. One would be swimming, which he shows some talent in. The other would be wrestling.
Wrestling is, in my opinion, the most under-rated of High School sports. You generally don't have to survive a cut to make the team, which automatically puts it in the bottom half of sports, prestiege-wise. Sports like baseball and basketball, where you have to be darned good just to make the team, always had a bit of an edge over sports like track and wrestling, where for the most part, if you want to be on the team, you will be allowed to.
(Whether you'll be competitive or earn a letter is another matter altogether.)
Where the kids in school may look at the QB of the football team as the school's resident badass, the reality is that the kid who earned a letter in wrestling, pound for pound, is probably the one more likely to put a hurt on you if things ever got violent.
As for conditioning, wrestling is hard to beat. It's a total body workout with an emphasis on strength per pound of body weight. A whole generation of modern exercise techniques (crossfit, P90X, etc.) are just pale imitations of the type of workout that wrestlers get on a daily basis.
I also think my boy would love it. The kid has loved to roughhouse since the day he was born. From the time he could toddle, all he ever wanted to do was wrestle. On the bed, on the floor, whatever. He just loves it.
So, I think this is a sport he could really enjoy. Basketball is still his first choice. Personally, I'll try to steer him towards swimming, because he'll spend a lot more time around girls in lycra rather than exclusively being around boys in lycra, but that's a small consideration.
I mentioned to him the other day that wrestling used to be a great way to get a college scholarship, but that Title IX ruined that. I said it matter-of-factly and off the cuff, as a simple statement of reality, the way I might say, "the sky is blue" or "my car has leather seats".
That did get me to thinking, though. Is there anything that can be done about this? Is this a fact that we need to accept?
Title IX did a lot of great things. In girl's sports, we're ahead of the entire rest of the world. Even in European countries like Germany, the opportunities for girls' soccer are considerably fewer than they are in the US.
In the days before Title IX, let's be frank, female athletes got hosed. My grandmother probably would have been an exceptional distance runner or baseball/softball player in her day. She never got the chance. Her youngest daughter, Marianne, who was in high school when I was a little boy, could only chose from a handful of club sports. It simply wasn't possible for a girl to get a varsity letter in 1970.
By the time her daughter, Erin, came along, she was earning letters in Softball, Basketball and Volleyball. (I think there might even have been a Track letter in there, somewhere.)
Perhaps more importantly, scholarship opportunities for women in college have expanded monumentally.
We've done well by our daughters.
The sad fact is that, unfortunately, there are now fewer scholarships available for men. So, we haven't done very well by our sons.
The first question should be, "is that a problem?"
I'll say that yes, it is. I have a personal belief that many of the things we've done to tilt the scales towards encouraging women have had the effect of making young men feel excluded.
Colleges are now nearly 60% female. It isn't just sports, but in every area, girls are told from the youngest ages that they've got opportunities in, say, science and engineering. There are outreach programs, special scholarships, etc.
You simply don't see that for young men. They're expected to find their own way in the world. Reasonable enough if you're talking about young adults, but we're talking about small children and the conditioning they're getting.
Second, there's a clear political agenda, here. Cheerleading requires just as much athleticism as, say, gymanstics. Yet, there are groups that are determined to make sure that it never gets classified as a sport. Why? Because then scholarships for cheerleading would detract from the number of scholarships required for other sports.
Still, the boys are doing pretty well, right? I mean, look at all those football, baseball and basketball scholarships out there.
Let's look at baseball as an example. Guess how many scholarships the top Division I teams get. I mean when you think of perennial powerhouses like University of Texas, they must have a few dozen scholarships to bring in all those talented players, right?
Nope. Not at all. The NCAA limits the number of full-ride scholarships to 11.7. The school can then divide these up into slices as small as a 1/4 ride.
Baseball is a money loser at every school. The facilities required are considerable. The ticket revenue is minimal or non-existant.
Men's Basketball pretty much breaks even, which is why basketball teams get 13 scholarships. Sometimes this boils down to pure economics.
Football? Football gets a whopping 85 scholarships. Football is the only sport that makes money and even then, only at the very largest of Division I schools. Most Div I schools lose money even on their football programs.
Now, if we considered only football, baseball and basketball, with their combined 109 scholarships, what is wrong with giving out 109 scholarships to women's sports?
The first is that women don't play football. For the life of me, I don't understand why colleges don't have women's football. It probably could draw spectators. If the games won't draw people on a stand-alone basis, have the games just prior to the men's games.
I honestly think the time has come for women's football at all levels. Maybe even a professional league. (Professional women's leagues are problematic and a subject that might be too broad for discussion here.)
The fact that men play football and women don't totally destroys the scholarship equation. The fact that football is basically the only college sport that makes money means that it won't be going away.
The second big problem is that even if a school offers 109 scholarships to women, that's not good enough.
The legalities are a bit intricate, but to comply with Title IX, there are 3 different criteria you can try to meet.
This criteria: "Full and effective accommodation of the interest and ability of underrepresented sex" is never, ever used because any woman in any college, at any time, could sue the school because she felt that they weren't fully and effectively accomodating her. Try disproving that one in court.
The next criteria, which is commonly used by schools is, "Demonstrate a continual expansion of athletic opportunities for the underrepresented sex". Generally, this means adding a women's team. Doing so keeps the courts off your ass for about 5 years, at which point you need to add another women's team or meet the third criteria:
"Providing athletic participation opportunities that are substantially proportionate to the student enrollment".
That's why 109 scholarships for women isn't enough. If you're giving 109 scholarships to men and your student body is 60% female, you need to give 20% more to women. Basically, to meet this test, you'd need to give out about 133 scholarships to women.
Which is why, for instance, there are only 13 basketball scholarships for men in division I, but there are 15 for women.
Which is why so many colleges and universities have either disbanded their men's wrestling team or have gutted the number of scholarships it gets.
Personally, I think the pendulum has swung way too far in the other direction. The odds of a boy getting an athletic scholarship to a Div I school is almost statistically impossible. However, frankly, the odds of a girl who joins a rowing team of getting a full-ride are astounding.
What? Rowing? Yes, rowing. This is an example of a distorted beast Title IX has created. There are currently about 1,700 male rowers in colleges across the country. So, there must be, what, maybe 1,700 women? Maybe 2,000 if we account for the fact that colleges are 60% female?
Nope... there are almost 7,000 female rowers in colleges across the country.
Nope, not a misprint. 1,700 male collegiate rowers. 7,000 females.
The NCAA allows 20 rowing scholarships. In most schools they almost all go to women.
How do they find 7,000 rowers given that nearly no High Schools have girls rowing teams?
A substantial number of women's collegiate rowers never touched an oar before they got a full-ride for it.
Lest you think I'm making this up, do your own google search and you'll find dozens of articles just like this one:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/28/sports/othersports/28xrowing.html
As this article points out, the reason is obvious: in order to have a football team, they need to give scholarships to as many women as they can.
In the best of all worlds, talented women would get scholarships. Also, men's sports wouldn't be gutted.
Unfortunately, Title IX is turning out to be a little too good at its intended purpose of increasing girls sports participation relative to participation by boys. Trouble is, you can work that equation from both sides. You can increase girls participation (a good thing, IMHO), or you can decrease boy's participation (a bad thing, IMHO). Unfortunately, working both sides yields the fastest results.
I'm not sure what sort of tweak would bring things back in line. However, I fear things won't get better, anytime soon.
My son is energetic and athletic, and I can't imagine that he'd ever sit out the Winter sports season. So, if for some reason he doesn't make the basketball team in High School, he's got a couple of options. One would be swimming, which he shows some talent in. The other would be wrestling.
Wrestling is, in my opinion, the most under-rated of High School sports. You generally don't have to survive a cut to make the team, which automatically puts it in the bottom half of sports, prestiege-wise. Sports like baseball and basketball, where you have to be darned good just to make the team, always had a bit of an edge over sports like track and wrestling, where for the most part, if you want to be on the team, you will be allowed to.
(Whether you'll be competitive or earn a letter is another matter altogether.)
Where the kids in school may look at the QB of the football team as the school's resident badass, the reality is that the kid who earned a letter in wrestling, pound for pound, is probably the one more likely to put a hurt on you if things ever got violent.
As for conditioning, wrestling is hard to beat. It's a total body workout with an emphasis on strength per pound of body weight. A whole generation of modern exercise techniques (crossfit, P90X, etc.) are just pale imitations of the type of workout that wrestlers get on a daily basis.
I also think my boy would love it. The kid has loved to roughhouse since the day he was born. From the time he could toddle, all he ever wanted to do was wrestle. On the bed, on the floor, whatever. He just loves it.
So, I think this is a sport he could really enjoy. Basketball is still his first choice. Personally, I'll try to steer him towards swimming, because he'll spend a lot more time around girls in lycra rather than exclusively being around boys in lycra, but that's a small consideration.
I mentioned to him the other day that wrestling used to be a great way to get a college scholarship, but that Title IX ruined that. I said it matter-of-factly and off the cuff, as a simple statement of reality, the way I might say, "the sky is blue" or "my car has leather seats".
That did get me to thinking, though. Is there anything that can be done about this? Is this a fact that we need to accept?
Title IX did a lot of great things. In girl's sports, we're ahead of the entire rest of the world. Even in European countries like Germany, the opportunities for girls' soccer are considerably fewer than they are in the US.
In the days before Title IX, let's be frank, female athletes got hosed. My grandmother probably would have been an exceptional distance runner or baseball/softball player in her day. She never got the chance. Her youngest daughter, Marianne, who was in high school when I was a little boy, could only chose from a handful of club sports. It simply wasn't possible for a girl to get a varsity letter in 1970.
By the time her daughter, Erin, came along, she was earning letters in Softball, Basketball and Volleyball. (I think there might even have been a Track letter in there, somewhere.)
Perhaps more importantly, scholarship opportunities for women in college have expanded monumentally.
We've done well by our daughters.
The sad fact is that, unfortunately, there are now fewer scholarships available for men. So, we haven't done very well by our sons.
The first question should be, "is that a problem?"
I'll say that yes, it is. I have a personal belief that many of the things we've done to tilt the scales towards encouraging women have had the effect of making young men feel excluded.
Colleges are now nearly 60% female. It isn't just sports, but in every area, girls are told from the youngest ages that they've got opportunities in, say, science and engineering. There are outreach programs, special scholarships, etc.
You simply don't see that for young men. They're expected to find their own way in the world. Reasonable enough if you're talking about young adults, but we're talking about small children and the conditioning they're getting.
Second, there's a clear political agenda, here. Cheerleading requires just as much athleticism as, say, gymanstics. Yet, there are groups that are determined to make sure that it never gets classified as a sport. Why? Because then scholarships for cheerleading would detract from the number of scholarships required for other sports.
Still, the boys are doing pretty well, right? I mean, look at all those football, baseball and basketball scholarships out there.
Let's look at baseball as an example. Guess how many scholarships the top Division I teams get. I mean when you think of perennial powerhouses like University of Texas, they must have a few dozen scholarships to bring in all those talented players, right?
Nope. Not at all. The NCAA limits the number of full-ride scholarships to 11.7. The school can then divide these up into slices as small as a 1/4 ride.
Baseball is a money loser at every school. The facilities required are considerable. The ticket revenue is minimal or non-existant.
Men's Basketball pretty much breaks even, which is why basketball teams get 13 scholarships. Sometimes this boils down to pure economics.
Football? Football gets a whopping 85 scholarships. Football is the only sport that makes money and even then, only at the very largest of Division I schools. Most Div I schools lose money even on their football programs.
Now, if we considered only football, baseball and basketball, with their combined 109 scholarships, what is wrong with giving out 109 scholarships to women's sports?
The first is that women don't play football. For the life of me, I don't understand why colleges don't have women's football. It probably could draw spectators. If the games won't draw people on a stand-alone basis, have the games just prior to the men's games.
I honestly think the time has come for women's football at all levels. Maybe even a professional league. (Professional women's leagues are problematic and a subject that might be too broad for discussion here.)
The fact that men play football and women don't totally destroys the scholarship equation. The fact that football is basically the only college sport that makes money means that it won't be going away.
The second big problem is that even if a school offers 109 scholarships to women, that's not good enough.
The legalities are a bit intricate, but to comply with Title IX, there are 3 different criteria you can try to meet.
This criteria: "Full and effective accommodation of the interest and ability of underrepresented sex" is never, ever used because any woman in any college, at any time, could sue the school because she felt that they weren't fully and effectively accomodating her. Try disproving that one in court.
The next criteria, which is commonly used by schools is, "Demonstrate a continual expansion of athletic opportunities for the underrepresented sex". Generally, this means adding a women's team. Doing so keeps the courts off your ass for about 5 years, at which point you need to add another women's team or meet the third criteria:
"Providing athletic participation opportunities that are substantially proportionate to the student enrollment".
That's why 109 scholarships for women isn't enough. If you're giving 109 scholarships to men and your student body is 60% female, you need to give 20% more to women. Basically, to meet this test, you'd need to give out about 133 scholarships to women.
Which is why, for instance, there are only 13 basketball scholarships for men in division I, but there are 15 for women.
Which is why so many colleges and universities have either disbanded their men's wrestling team or have gutted the number of scholarships it gets.
Personally, I think the pendulum has swung way too far in the other direction. The odds of a boy getting an athletic scholarship to a Div I school is almost statistically impossible. However, frankly, the odds of a girl who joins a rowing team of getting a full-ride are astounding.
What? Rowing? Yes, rowing. This is an example of a distorted beast Title IX has created. There are currently about 1,700 male rowers in colleges across the country. So, there must be, what, maybe 1,700 women? Maybe 2,000 if we account for the fact that colleges are 60% female?
Nope... there are almost 7,000 female rowers in colleges across the country.
Nope, not a misprint. 1,700 male collegiate rowers. 7,000 females.
The NCAA allows 20 rowing scholarships. In most schools they almost all go to women.
How do they find 7,000 rowers given that nearly no High Schools have girls rowing teams?
A substantial number of women's collegiate rowers never touched an oar before they got a full-ride for it.
Lest you think I'm making this up, do your own google search and you'll find dozens of articles just like this one:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/28/sports/othersports/28xrowing.html
As this article points out, the reason is obvious: in order to have a football team, they need to give scholarships to as many women as they can.
In the best of all worlds, talented women would get scholarships. Also, men's sports wouldn't be gutted.
Unfortunately, Title IX is turning out to be a little too good at its intended purpose of increasing girls sports participation relative to participation by boys. Trouble is, you can work that equation from both sides. You can increase girls participation (a good thing, IMHO), or you can decrease boy's participation (a bad thing, IMHO). Unfortunately, working both sides yields the fastest results.
I'm not sure what sort of tweak would bring things back in line. However, I fear things won't get better, anytime soon.
Monday, July 4, 2011
The Very Worst of Youth Sports
When I think of the worst aspects of youth sports, more often than not, it's the conduct of parents and coaches that come to mind.
Usually, the kids are great. They compete hard. They want to do well.
Parents? Coaches? I think there are some basic lessons that both groups should be exposed to. I see a lot of attempts to codify parental conduct, but frankly, we could use a lot more.
These are my gripes and the things I would like to see changed in the approach to the game by both coaches and parents.
1. This is sports. Sports is, at its essence, just a game. The winner and loser, especially for youth sports, is completely immaterial. There is no reason for anybody to get angry. Really.
I remember talking to my son after a basketball tryout and I must have been getting a little too excited and emphatic. My son paused and said, "Dad, you sound like you're getting mad at me."
I told him that I am NEVER mad at him for anything about sports. I then explained that sometimes I get excited when I explain things that are sports related. Also, that coaches will use the same tone of voice. It doesn't (or at least shouldn't) ever mean that the adult is angry. I didn't play much sports when I was younger, but that's how I remember coaches talking to us, and I guess it just carried over.
The key there is to make sure that my son knows that it doesn't matter what happens on the field. I am never angry at my son because of anything related to a children's game. He needs to know that and I need to never forget it.
2. There's a difference between coaching and criticizing. All too often, I see both coaches and parents harping on what just happened, instead of focusing on what's coming up. For instance, "Hey, you didn't do X, Y or Z" isn't really helpful in my opinion. "Hey, let's make sure you do X, Y or Z" is a completely different spin.
One is focused in the past. You're just commenting on something that a person can't help, because it's over. The other is focused on the future and it can be done in an encouraging manner.
Criticism, in sports or life, has to be handled carefully so as not to discourage. Instead, focus on desired behaviors and draw people to them.
3. A coach who loses his temper more than about once a season loses his temper way too often. We would never accept a hothead at work. Somebody who blew their stack every day would find themselves either fired or despised by their co-workers.
However, all to often, I see coaches who are blowing their top every time I see them coach a game. What world do these people live in? Do they think, "Well, at work, I need to keep my emotions in check and behave professionally. However, now that I'm guiding these children, it's time for me to act a fool"?
We are talking about children, here. We may like to think that they're tough competitors or that playing the game is making them more mature, but seriously? These are children. Young ones.
We shouldn't act less circumspect around kids. Our behavior should be even more patient, more encouraging, more positive. If we wouldn't blow our top every day with adults, why would we do it with kids?
So, throwing clipboards, yelling at kids, jumping up and down, kicking things around? Really now? It has no place in youth sports. If you have that much difficulty controlling your temper, you not only shouldn't be coaching sports, but you might want to consider psychological help.
4. Parents? Your kids are doing the best they can. There is no room for a public dressing-down. Same principle, here: it's bad when done anywhere. If you are upset with your spouse, do you find a public place, in front of dozens of people, and start talking about why you're unhappy in a voice loud enough so everybody can hear?
At work, do you find a co-worker you have difficulty with, then publicly berate them?
Most people would never, ever do these things. Yet, I see all the time, parents who are upset at something their kid did or didn't do. Then, the parent is berating their own child in front of everyone.
Your child may remember these interactions for the rest of their lives. If you have to correct your child's athletic performance, unless you're coaching, do it privately, out of earshot of others, so as not to embarass them. Then, do it in as encouraging a manner as possible.
If you are coaching, address the issue like you would with anybody else. Speak directly, not emotionally, and not angrily.
When your kid is grown and moved out of the house, there is no way you'll look back on the day you yelled at them when they dropped a fly ball and feel good about yourself. If you're lucky, they won't remember it, but if they do, you might wish you had behaved differently.
5. The Umpires, Refs, etc., are not perfect. Get over it. I am genuinely embarassed by people who lose their cool and start yelling at the umps. That goes for both parents and coaches. Fortunately, at my son's age, the kids tend not to go nuts about this sort of thing. However, eventually, they're going to model the behavior they see.
Even when my son was playing coach-pitch, I used to tell him that bad calls by an umpire are a part of the game, just like your ball and your bat. If you can't deal with that, you just can't play.
I've never seen an umpire make a deliberately bad call. They're doing the best they can. I've also never seen one reverse a call because somebody yelled at them. We see the umps a lot through the course of a season. Enough that I know a few by name and most of them by sight. Some are great. Others less so. However, they're all human beings and they're there to do a job: to facilitate an experience that's supposed to be fun and character building for your kid. They don't deserve to be abused for it.
In the end, I enjoy having a kid who plays youth sports because I know that one day he'll hang up his cleats. On that day, he'll look back on all the games he played and will probably think of his playing days as some of the most fun he ever had. If he picks up some athletic skills along the way, all the better. If he learns a few lessons about life along the way: bonus.
Same for every other kid out there. I hope the conduct of all the parents and coaches reflects this reality. Sports is supposed to be fun. It can be serious, but it should always be fun.
Usually, the kids are great. They compete hard. They want to do well.
Parents? Coaches? I think there are some basic lessons that both groups should be exposed to. I see a lot of attempts to codify parental conduct, but frankly, we could use a lot more.
These are my gripes and the things I would like to see changed in the approach to the game by both coaches and parents.
1. This is sports. Sports is, at its essence, just a game. The winner and loser, especially for youth sports, is completely immaterial. There is no reason for anybody to get angry. Really.
I remember talking to my son after a basketball tryout and I must have been getting a little too excited and emphatic. My son paused and said, "Dad, you sound like you're getting mad at me."
I told him that I am NEVER mad at him for anything about sports. I then explained that sometimes I get excited when I explain things that are sports related. Also, that coaches will use the same tone of voice. It doesn't (or at least shouldn't) ever mean that the adult is angry. I didn't play much sports when I was younger, but that's how I remember coaches talking to us, and I guess it just carried over.
The key there is to make sure that my son knows that it doesn't matter what happens on the field. I am never angry at my son because of anything related to a children's game. He needs to know that and I need to never forget it.
2. There's a difference between coaching and criticizing. All too often, I see both coaches and parents harping on what just happened, instead of focusing on what's coming up. For instance, "Hey, you didn't do X, Y or Z" isn't really helpful in my opinion. "Hey, let's make sure you do X, Y or Z" is a completely different spin.
One is focused in the past. You're just commenting on something that a person can't help, because it's over. The other is focused on the future and it can be done in an encouraging manner.
Criticism, in sports or life, has to be handled carefully so as not to discourage. Instead, focus on desired behaviors and draw people to them.
3. A coach who loses his temper more than about once a season loses his temper way too often. We would never accept a hothead at work. Somebody who blew their stack every day would find themselves either fired or despised by their co-workers.
However, all to often, I see coaches who are blowing their top every time I see them coach a game. What world do these people live in? Do they think, "Well, at work, I need to keep my emotions in check and behave professionally. However, now that I'm guiding these children, it's time for me to act a fool"?
We are talking about children, here. We may like to think that they're tough competitors or that playing the game is making them more mature, but seriously? These are children. Young ones.
We shouldn't act less circumspect around kids. Our behavior should be even more patient, more encouraging, more positive. If we wouldn't blow our top every day with adults, why would we do it with kids?
So, throwing clipboards, yelling at kids, jumping up and down, kicking things around? Really now? It has no place in youth sports. If you have that much difficulty controlling your temper, you not only shouldn't be coaching sports, but you might want to consider psychological help.
4. Parents? Your kids are doing the best they can. There is no room for a public dressing-down. Same principle, here: it's bad when done anywhere. If you are upset with your spouse, do you find a public place, in front of dozens of people, and start talking about why you're unhappy in a voice loud enough so everybody can hear?
At work, do you find a co-worker you have difficulty with, then publicly berate them?
Most people would never, ever do these things. Yet, I see all the time, parents who are upset at something their kid did or didn't do. Then, the parent is berating their own child in front of everyone.
Your child may remember these interactions for the rest of their lives. If you have to correct your child's athletic performance, unless you're coaching, do it privately, out of earshot of others, so as not to embarass them. Then, do it in as encouraging a manner as possible.
If you are coaching, address the issue like you would with anybody else. Speak directly, not emotionally, and not angrily.
When your kid is grown and moved out of the house, there is no way you'll look back on the day you yelled at them when they dropped a fly ball and feel good about yourself. If you're lucky, they won't remember it, but if they do, you might wish you had behaved differently.
5. The Umpires, Refs, etc., are not perfect. Get over it. I am genuinely embarassed by people who lose their cool and start yelling at the umps. That goes for both parents and coaches. Fortunately, at my son's age, the kids tend not to go nuts about this sort of thing. However, eventually, they're going to model the behavior they see.
Even when my son was playing coach-pitch, I used to tell him that bad calls by an umpire are a part of the game, just like your ball and your bat. If you can't deal with that, you just can't play.
I've never seen an umpire make a deliberately bad call. They're doing the best they can. I've also never seen one reverse a call because somebody yelled at them. We see the umps a lot through the course of a season. Enough that I know a few by name and most of them by sight. Some are great. Others less so. However, they're all human beings and they're there to do a job: to facilitate an experience that's supposed to be fun and character building for your kid. They don't deserve to be abused for it.
In the end, I enjoy having a kid who plays youth sports because I know that one day he'll hang up his cleats. On that day, he'll look back on all the games he played and will probably think of his playing days as some of the most fun he ever had. If he picks up some athletic skills along the way, all the better. If he learns a few lessons about life along the way: bonus.
Same for every other kid out there. I hope the conduct of all the parents and coaches reflects this reality. Sports is supposed to be fun. It can be serious, but it should always be fun.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Is Baseball Becoming a Country Club Sport?
When I think back on various sports activities when I was younger, I had a particular disdain for those activities where the main skill being displayed was the ability of parents to write a check.
People had nearly universal respect for, say, the star center of the basketball team, or the all-county defensive back on the football team. The person who was a national champion in dressage? Not so much.
It's not that those kids weren't talented, but more that it was hard to know how talented they were since all but a few very wealthy people were eliminated from competing by virtue of economics.
Golf and tennis also fell into this category. Most of the kids I knew didn't own a set of golf clubs and would never have been able to afford greens fees. Even the ones I knew that I considered "rich" didn't reach that strata.
This isn't to say that every kid on the golf and tennis team came from indulgent parents. Some of them were truly talented, and some found ways to learn their sports on the cheap.
However, most of them benefitted tremendously by the fact that the day tryouts were held, economics prevented the vast majority of kids in the class from having even basic skills. When the tennis players and golfers earned their High School letters, there were very few who thought it was because of superior athletics, alone.
Unfortunately, I see the same dynamics playing themselves out in baseball. A century ago, it was a sport played by nearly every kid in every socio-economic strata. Today? The inner cities are devoid of baseball fields, entirely. It is a game that's played almost entirely in the suburbs.
Rural areas have baseball, but they don't have the same availability of coaches and elite teams. So, for the most part, when I see tournaments, the teams come from areas that are generally devoid of poverty. Far from being the national pastime, it seems that it's better described as the game of white kids from the 'burbs.
When I think of my own son's experience, it's something that's clearly priced out of the reach of people who are struggling financially. Just paying the team fee and buying a minimal set of uniforms is about $600 a year.
A minimal set of uniforms means you will do laundry pretty much every day throughout the season, and during tournaments, your kid will play most of the day in dirty clothes. We're probably on the hook for more like $500 worth of uniforms. It's not just the shirts and the pants, but the accompanying underarmor cold weather gear, warm weather gear, an extra pair of cleats, etc.
We also pay out of pocket for a handful of indoor practices. Yes, the team has two indoor facilities that it uses for 3 or so practices per week during bad-weather months, but we also just chip in for facility rental in addition to that.
My son has a bat-bag with over $1,000 worth of bats in it. A top of the line carbon-fiber bat is about $300. Yes, the bats are better and yes, they make a difference.
Baseball gloves for little kids aren't too pricey, but are on the lines of $50 or so. Throw in another $50 for baseball spikes and various and other sundry, and $1,000 a year is probably on the lower end of what we end up paying just for the team fee and basic equipment.
Then, there are the travel tournaments. We have 4 days in a hotel coming up. There's gas to and from. 3 meals a day for a family.
In addition, some of the kids get private instruction throughout the off-season. Generally speaking, when last season ended, the off-season started and it involved about 7 months of workouts where I spent about $100 a month.
We also send Logan to a local minor-league team's baseball camp every Summer.
All in all, I probably spend more than others do, but I probably spend $4,000 a year on baseball. Yes, I realize how ridiculous that sounds.
In football, all the money in the world couldn't help you. You bought your cleats, and beyond that, the rest of the equipment was provided by the team. There were very few optional pieces of equipment you could get. Forearm pads were about it, but you could play without them, like I did. Nowadays, perhaps a cowboy collar and that's it. Anybody who wants to play football can. If you're big and fast and love to hit people, you can flatten a rich kid just as easily as a poor kid.
In baseball? Spending the money helps. It helps a lot. I've seen the kids who decided not to play travel ball and who have instead decided to play rec league. Some of those kids, back when the first tryouts for travel took place, were every bit good enough to make my son's team.
Today? Not a chance. The kids who travel end up with better coaches, better facilities, more games. Throw in additional training, and even if you assembled a team of the absolute best kids in rec, they would be so far below the travel teams in terms of playing ability that it would be a waste of time to even play the game.
By the time these kids reach High School the kids who played travel will be the odds-on favorites to make the team. The kids who didn't travel? Will have to beat long odds for the few remaining spots.
Especially because hitting and throwing a baseball properly are nearly impossible to stumble on by trial and error, early coaching pays huge dividends. I wasn't even aware until I saw the coaching my son got, that there is a wrong way to throw a baseball. What I'd been doing my entire life wasn't even close to being correct.
Hitting? It's such a refined science, with so little room for variation or error that you'll see that pretty much every major leaguer has the same basic swing. If you can stumble on that by accident, more power to you. Very few can and even fewer do.
Now, I guess I should like the current system because my son benefits from it. I also do everything I can to give him an advantage, here. He's one of the top few hitters on his team when he was squarely in the middle of the pack last year.
I would like to think that this is due to superior genetics and his innate desire, but the fact that I got him private hitting lessons all year had something to do with it as well. There can't possibly be any doubt about that. So, even when you're talking about kids with the talent and dedication to play travel, the amount of money spent can yield results.
Who knows if my son would even be playing travel if not for the pitching machine I bought when he was playing his first few years of coach pitch. $1,200 isn't a world-ending sum of money, but it's certainly outside of the reach of kids who are growing up like I did back in the day. I was able to give him hundreds of balls of practice at a consistent speed and consistent location to get him to where he was distinguishing himself even in the early rec leagues.
Could I have thrown the balls to him? With my terrible arm and with what needed to be done? Not as consistently. Which means he'd have been more frustrated waiting for good pitches.
It's also not my son's fault that kids don't practice baseball. Yeah, they have an obvious disadvantage if they don't play travel, but the reality is that the baseball diamonds in my town are absolutely empty if there's not a team working out there.
Any day of the week, even during baseball season, there might be, at most a few hours a week where Logan and I can't walk onto any field anywhere in the city and take up the entire diamond so I can hit him line drives. The city has very, very few hitting cages, and we've never had trouble getting one all to ourselves.
Those things don't cost any money and they're available to everyone. So, on the one hand, yeah, the rich kids have a leg-up in baseball, but it's a leg-up that could probably be lessened by a determined bunch of kids who spent hours every day during the long Summer occupying a baseball diamond with a never-ending game.
The scenario that's portrayed in movies like "The Sandlot" and "The Benchwarmers" doesn't really happen in reality. The uniformed travel teams are there. It's the scrappy kids with a love for baseball that are missing.
Still, who can blame them? Without the proper coaching, they'll simply be reinforcing their bad habits and will probably have severe limitations throughout their baseball playing days.
If you take up golf and ask for advice, unanimously, people will tell you to get lessons. Swinging a golf club is too complicated for all but a very lucky and talented few to just figure out on their own.
Swinging a baseball bat at a pitch that's moving at over 90 mph? Same story. You might stumble onto how to do it, but chances are you won't. Even at my son's level (he's 9 years old), the hardest throwers are pitching in the mid 50s.
In my grandmother's day, she said all the kids played baseball all the time because they didn't have money to do much else. By the time I was in middle school, we were lucky to get maybe 5 or 6 kids to go to the diamonds for a pickup game.
Now, I just don't see it. Even the pickup games seem to need to be orchestrated by grownups.
There's no need to mourn reality. Things have changed and maybe the old days weren't as good as people remember them.
It just seems a shame that we have a whole generation of kids who probably look at the baseball team the way we used to look at golf team. I wonder if future generations will view baseball as inaccessible to the masses.
People had nearly universal respect for, say, the star center of the basketball team, or the all-county defensive back on the football team. The person who was a national champion in dressage? Not so much.
It's not that those kids weren't talented, but more that it was hard to know how talented they were since all but a few very wealthy people were eliminated from competing by virtue of economics.
Golf and tennis also fell into this category. Most of the kids I knew didn't own a set of golf clubs and would never have been able to afford greens fees. Even the ones I knew that I considered "rich" didn't reach that strata.
This isn't to say that every kid on the golf and tennis team came from indulgent parents. Some of them were truly talented, and some found ways to learn their sports on the cheap.
However, most of them benefitted tremendously by the fact that the day tryouts were held, economics prevented the vast majority of kids in the class from having even basic skills. When the tennis players and golfers earned their High School letters, there were very few who thought it was because of superior athletics, alone.
Unfortunately, I see the same dynamics playing themselves out in baseball. A century ago, it was a sport played by nearly every kid in every socio-economic strata. Today? The inner cities are devoid of baseball fields, entirely. It is a game that's played almost entirely in the suburbs.
Rural areas have baseball, but they don't have the same availability of coaches and elite teams. So, for the most part, when I see tournaments, the teams come from areas that are generally devoid of poverty. Far from being the national pastime, it seems that it's better described as the game of white kids from the 'burbs.
When I think of my own son's experience, it's something that's clearly priced out of the reach of people who are struggling financially. Just paying the team fee and buying a minimal set of uniforms is about $600 a year.
A minimal set of uniforms means you will do laundry pretty much every day throughout the season, and during tournaments, your kid will play most of the day in dirty clothes. We're probably on the hook for more like $500 worth of uniforms. It's not just the shirts and the pants, but the accompanying underarmor cold weather gear, warm weather gear, an extra pair of cleats, etc.
We also pay out of pocket for a handful of indoor practices. Yes, the team has two indoor facilities that it uses for 3 or so practices per week during bad-weather months, but we also just chip in for facility rental in addition to that.
My son has a bat-bag with over $1,000 worth of bats in it. A top of the line carbon-fiber bat is about $300. Yes, the bats are better and yes, they make a difference.
Baseball gloves for little kids aren't too pricey, but are on the lines of $50 or so. Throw in another $50 for baseball spikes and various and other sundry, and $1,000 a year is probably on the lower end of what we end up paying just for the team fee and basic equipment.
Then, there are the travel tournaments. We have 4 days in a hotel coming up. There's gas to and from. 3 meals a day for a family.
In addition, some of the kids get private instruction throughout the off-season. Generally speaking, when last season ended, the off-season started and it involved about 7 months of workouts where I spent about $100 a month.
We also send Logan to a local minor-league team's baseball camp every Summer.
All in all, I probably spend more than others do, but I probably spend $4,000 a year on baseball. Yes, I realize how ridiculous that sounds.
In football, all the money in the world couldn't help you. You bought your cleats, and beyond that, the rest of the equipment was provided by the team. There were very few optional pieces of equipment you could get. Forearm pads were about it, but you could play without them, like I did. Nowadays, perhaps a cowboy collar and that's it. Anybody who wants to play football can. If you're big and fast and love to hit people, you can flatten a rich kid just as easily as a poor kid.
In baseball? Spending the money helps. It helps a lot. I've seen the kids who decided not to play travel ball and who have instead decided to play rec league. Some of those kids, back when the first tryouts for travel took place, were every bit good enough to make my son's team.
Today? Not a chance. The kids who travel end up with better coaches, better facilities, more games. Throw in additional training, and even if you assembled a team of the absolute best kids in rec, they would be so far below the travel teams in terms of playing ability that it would be a waste of time to even play the game.
By the time these kids reach High School the kids who played travel will be the odds-on favorites to make the team. The kids who didn't travel? Will have to beat long odds for the few remaining spots.
Especially because hitting and throwing a baseball properly are nearly impossible to stumble on by trial and error, early coaching pays huge dividends. I wasn't even aware until I saw the coaching my son got, that there is a wrong way to throw a baseball. What I'd been doing my entire life wasn't even close to being correct.
Hitting? It's such a refined science, with so little room for variation or error that you'll see that pretty much every major leaguer has the same basic swing. If you can stumble on that by accident, more power to you. Very few can and even fewer do.
Now, I guess I should like the current system because my son benefits from it. I also do everything I can to give him an advantage, here. He's one of the top few hitters on his team when he was squarely in the middle of the pack last year.
I would like to think that this is due to superior genetics and his innate desire, but the fact that I got him private hitting lessons all year had something to do with it as well. There can't possibly be any doubt about that. So, even when you're talking about kids with the talent and dedication to play travel, the amount of money spent can yield results.
Who knows if my son would even be playing travel if not for the pitching machine I bought when he was playing his first few years of coach pitch. $1,200 isn't a world-ending sum of money, but it's certainly outside of the reach of kids who are growing up like I did back in the day. I was able to give him hundreds of balls of practice at a consistent speed and consistent location to get him to where he was distinguishing himself even in the early rec leagues.
Could I have thrown the balls to him? With my terrible arm and with what needed to be done? Not as consistently. Which means he'd have been more frustrated waiting for good pitches.
It's also not my son's fault that kids don't practice baseball. Yeah, they have an obvious disadvantage if they don't play travel, but the reality is that the baseball diamonds in my town are absolutely empty if there's not a team working out there.
Any day of the week, even during baseball season, there might be, at most a few hours a week where Logan and I can't walk onto any field anywhere in the city and take up the entire diamond so I can hit him line drives. The city has very, very few hitting cages, and we've never had trouble getting one all to ourselves.
Those things don't cost any money and they're available to everyone. So, on the one hand, yeah, the rich kids have a leg-up in baseball, but it's a leg-up that could probably be lessened by a determined bunch of kids who spent hours every day during the long Summer occupying a baseball diamond with a never-ending game.
The scenario that's portrayed in movies like "The Sandlot" and "The Benchwarmers" doesn't really happen in reality. The uniformed travel teams are there. It's the scrappy kids with a love for baseball that are missing.
Still, who can blame them? Without the proper coaching, they'll simply be reinforcing their bad habits and will probably have severe limitations throughout their baseball playing days.
If you take up golf and ask for advice, unanimously, people will tell you to get lessons. Swinging a golf club is too complicated for all but a very lucky and talented few to just figure out on their own.
Swinging a baseball bat at a pitch that's moving at over 90 mph? Same story. You might stumble onto how to do it, but chances are you won't. Even at my son's level (he's 9 years old), the hardest throwers are pitching in the mid 50s.
In my grandmother's day, she said all the kids played baseball all the time because they didn't have money to do much else. By the time I was in middle school, we were lucky to get maybe 5 or 6 kids to go to the diamonds for a pickup game.
Now, I just don't see it. Even the pickup games seem to need to be orchestrated by grownups.
There's no need to mourn reality. Things have changed and maybe the old days weren't as good as people remember them.
It just seems a shame that we have a whole generation of kids who probably look at the baseball team the way we used to look at golf team. I wonder if future generations will view baseball as inaccessible to the masses.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Uggghhh...
The baseball marathon continues. Last night was a little disappointing. We won big: 16-2. That's not what I'm unhappy about.
Actually, it is what I'm unhappy about. We knew going in to this game that this team wasn't that hard for us to beat. Last year, this was all new to us and we really didn't know which teams would give us trouble and which teams would not.
So, we pretty much showed up loaded for bear for every game. Strongest lineup. Bringing the hardest pitching. We experimented once or twice with going with a lighter lineup but we guessed wrong a couple of times and the team we faced was harder than we predicted.
This year, we know the teams a little better. Also, the league has divided up into different divisions. The tougher teams are in our division. The easier teams are in the other.
We played teams from the other division twice so far this year. The first time, we dabbled with letting some other players get exposure to infield and pitching. The second time was awesome: infield was ALL kids who hadn't played it much, previously and we gave a lot of kids the chance to pitch. I think we literally pitched a different kid every inning.
Last night was a little disappointing. I have tried putting a bug in the coach's ear that maybe we could flip the batting order against some of these easier teams. It sucks being at the bottom of the order. My son was there a lot this year. Really, the kids who hit well tend to hit well week-in, week-out. The kids who don't might have a good game or two, but for the most part, they are towards the bottom of the team, numbers-wise, every week.
I think it would be nice to take that kid who has been slogging it out in the 12 spot all year and let him lead off or bat somewhere in the top of the order when the outcome of the game is not in question. Plus, you never know, baseball is so mental that maybe doing that every now and then will help the kid improve.
It also seems like an issue of fairness to me. We bat our best batters at the top for the vast majority of our games because that makes sense and it's what you do to win games. However, every other player on the team works just as hard. I feel like they deserve a little moment in the sun, too, once in a while.
It was also disappointing in that we didn't jumble up the infield as much as we could. In fact, we pretty much kept our usual third baseman and shortstop the whole game. Honestly, this hacks me off a little bit.
At least with batting, everybody is going to get a turn to bat. Again, my son batted 11th or 12th for quite a few weeks, but his batting order couldn't dictate how well he hit. Despite a crappy spot in the batting order, he still got the same chance to hit the ball every at-bat that everybody else had. No matter where he was on the lineup, if he crushed the ball, he crushed the ball.
Yeah, the guys at the bottom end up with a lot fewer ABs than the guys at the top. By the end of the season, the guys at the bottom probably get as much as 30% fewer at-bats as the guys at the top.
Still, this is travel baseball, and you have to earn your way up.
However, with infield positions, you really have to look for chances to let the kids play those. My son got to play an inning at 2nd base and an inning pitching last night. He wasn't the only one. Two other kids who don't pitch much got to pitch an inning, too.
In a game like this, where we're clearly not going to lose the thing, why would we not use it as a chance to develop these kids?
My biggest problem with the team is basically that it's turning into a team that exists for 5 players. The other 7 are just there to do whatever the other 5 don't need to do.
Now, I know that even the greatest coaches have their favorite players. I think we have a great coach. He's only human. I also think he is as fair-minded as he can be. He would never actively do anything to favor one kid over another. He's making judgement calls on what he sees as merit. For the most part, I think he makes good calls.
I don't think he's always right, but he's as right as a human being can be. The 5 players? Generally speaking, they are a cut above. I think that sometimes they get the benefit of the doubt, where other players on the team might not, but that's just going to be the case in any team sport with any coach.
You get a guy who destroys the ball at the plate, and the coach isn't as hard on him when he tanks a play in the infield as he would be on the kid who is batting .100 and tanks the same play.
The team's best pitcher might get to work out his difficulties at the top of the order when he slumps. Another kid slumps and he's down to the bottom of the order.
These are the sorts of things that are just inevitable in team sports. Life isn't always fair and the team doesn't exist to give the perfect experience to any one individual player. You make tradeoffs and realize that hey, maybe for no good reason, another kid who is no better than yours got put in 1B one day and yours got put in LF, and the coach just never saw a reason to change things.
When you're not one of the chosen ones on the team, it can be frustrating.
However, games like last night are the chance to give some valuable experience to the guys on the team who aren't the chosen ones. That, more than anything, is what's frustrating to me.
Yeah, you have to make a call, and not everybody is going to be happy with the "A lineup". Sorry, but the team's studs are going to get the critical positions and better spots in the batting order when it's going to be a tough, competitive game.
For crying out loud, though, when you're facing an easy team, that's a chance to balance the scales a little bit. You're still gonna win. Do you really need to win by 14 runs? How about winning by 3 runs and developing the other 7 troopers on the team?
So, I'm a little hacked off today. The kid is killing the ball, hottest hitter on the team and still hitting seventh. When we face a team where he could have gotten some good experience pitching and playing shortstop, he ends up doing 1 inning pitching, 1 inning 2B, and spends the rest of the game back in center field.
Now, I also don't mean to bag on Center Field like it's some sort of consolation prize. Logan plays the hell out of it. He's had some huge catches and gunned down some baserunners with plays that not many guys on the team can make. I have no problem with him being a center fielder in the long run if he makes his High School team.
My problem is that the kid is 9 years old. At this point, nobody can really say for sure what he'll develop to be. He should be getting well-rounded experience that's a mix of pitching, infield and outfield. I think he's getting a token amount of time pitching and in the infield. He's developing into an insanely good CF, but I don't like the idea of potentially pidgeonholing him when he's so young.
Also, I should emphasize, I'm not just saying this for him. There are other guys who either play the whole game in the outfield, or they platoon here and there. These easier games should be a chance for them to have fun.
We didn't do a very good job of that last night. I've made my opinion known to the coach. At this point, I just have to respect his decision and watch the rest of the season play out.
Ultimately, is this enough to make me want Logan to play for a different team? That's a really hard call. The coach really is a good coach. He runs a great practice. The team is a great team. It's a classic big fish, small pond question. Is it better to be the starting CF on a team that wins, or would you rather start at SS on a team that's playing at a level a notch below?
In the best of all worlds, you'd play on the better team, then earn your spot as starting SS. Thing is, unlike batting, that's hard to do if you don't ever get the chance.
Actually, it is what I'm unhappy about. We knew going in to this game that this team wasn't that hard for us to beat. Last year, this was all new to us and we really didn't know which teams would give us trouble and which teams would not.
So, we pretty much showed up loaded for bear for every game. Strongest lineup. Bringing the hardest pitching. We experimented once or twice with going with a lighter lineup but we guessed wrong a couple of times and the team we faced was harder than we predicted.
This year, we know the teams a little better. Also, the league has divided up into different divisions. The tougher teams are in our division. The easier teams are in the other.
We played teams from the other division twice so far this year. The first time, we dabbled with letting some other players get exposure to infield and pitching. The second time was awesome: infield was ALL kids who hadn't played it much, previously and we gave a lot of kids the chance to pitch. I think we literally pitched a different kid every inning.
Last night was a little disappointing. I have tried putting a bug in the coach's ear that maybe we could flip the batting order against some of these easier teams. It sucks being at the bottom of the order. My son was there a lot this year. Really, the kids who hit well tend to hit well week-in, week-out. The kids who don't might have a good game or two, but for the most part, they are towards the bottom of the team, numbers-wise, every week.
I think it would be nice to take that kid who has been slogging it out in the 12 spot all year and let him lead off or bat somewhere in the top of the order when the outcome of the game is not in question. Plus, you never know, baseball is so mental that maybe doing that every now and then will help the kid improve.
It also seems like an issue of fairness to me. We bat our best batters at the top for the vast majority of our games because that makes sense and it's what you do to win games. However, every other player on the team works just as hard. I feel like they deserve a little moment in the sun, too, once in a while.
It was also disappointing in that we didn't jumble up the infield as much as we could. In fact, we pretty much kept our usual third baseman and shortstop the whole game. Honestly, this hacks me off a little bit.
At least with batting, everybody is going to get a turn to bat. Again, my son batted 11th or 12th for quite a few weeks, but his batting order couldn't dictate how well he hit. Despite a crappy spot in the batting order, he still got the same chance to hit the ball every at-bat that everybody else had. No matter where he was on the lineup, if he crushed the ball, he crushed the ball.
Yeah, the guys at the bottom end up with a lot fewer ABs than the guys at the top. By the end of the season, the guys at the bottom probably get as much as 30% fewer at-bats as the guys at the top.
Still, this is travel baseball, and you have to earn your way up.
However, with infield positions, you really have to look for chances to let the kids play those. My son got to play an inning at 2nd base and an inning pitching last night. He wasn't the only one. Two other kids who don't pitch much got to pitch an inning, too.
In a game like this, where we're clearly not going to lose the thing, why would we not use it as a chance to develop these kids?
My biggest problem with the team is basically that it's turning into a team that exists for 5 players. The other 7 are just there to do whatever the other 5 don't need to do.
Now, I know that even the greatest coaches have their favorite players. I think we have a great coach. He's only human. I also think he is as fair-minded as he can be. He would never actively do anything to favor one kid over another. He's making judgement calls on what he sees as merit. For the most part, I think he makes good calls.
I don't think he's always right, but he's as right as a human being can be. The 5 players? Generally speaking, they are a cut above. I think that sometimes they get the benefit of the doubt, where other players on the team might not, but that's just going to be the case in any team sport with any coach.
You get a guy who destroys the ball at the plate, and the coach isn't as hard on him when he tanks a play in the infield as he would be on the kid who is batting .100 and tanks the same play.
The team's best pitcher might get to work out his difficulties at the top of the order when he slumps. Another kid slumps and he's down to the bottom of the order.
These are the sorts of things that are just inevitable in team sports. Life isn't always fair and the team doesn't exist to give the perfect experience to any one individual player. You make tradeoffs and realize that hey, maybe for no good reason, another kid who is no better than yours got put in 1B one day and yours got put in LF, and the coach just never saw a reason to change things.
When you're not one of the chosen ones on the team, it can be frustrating.
However, games like last night are the chance to give some valuable experience to the guys on the team who aren't the chosen ones. That, more than anything, is what's frustrating to me.
Yeah, you have to make a call, and not everybody is going to be happy with the "A lineup". Sorry, but the team's studs are going to get the critical positions and better spots in the batting order when it's going to be a tough, competitive game.
For crying out loud, though, when you're facing an easy team, that's a chance to balance the scales a little bit. You're still gonna win. Do you really need to win by 14 runs? How about winning by 3 runs and developing the other 7 troopers on the team?
So, I'm a little hacked off today. The kid is killing the ball, hottest hitter on the team and still hitting seventh. When we face a team where he could have gotten some good experience pitching and playing shortstop, he ends up doing 1 inning pitching, 1 inning 2B, and spends the rest of the game back in center field.
Now, I also don't mean to bag on Center Field like it's some sort of consolation prize. Logan plays the hell out of it. He's had some huge catches and gunned down some baserunners with plays that not many guys on the team can make. I have no problem with him being a center fielder in the long run if he makes his High School team.
My problem is that the kid is 9 years old. At this point, nobody can really say for sure what he'll develop to be. He should be getting well-rounded experience that's a mix of pitching, infield and outfield. I think he's getting a token amount of time pitching and in the infield. He's developing into an insanely good CF, but I don't like the idea of potentially pidgeonholing him when he's so young.
Also, I should emphasize, I'm not just saying this for him. There are other guys who either play the whole game in the outfield, or they platoon here and there. These easier games should be a chance for them to have fun.
We didn't do a very good job of that last night. I've made my opinion known to the coach. At this point, I just have to respect his decision and watch the rest of the season play out.
Ultimately, is this enough to make me want Logan to play for a different team? That's a really hard call. The coach really is a good coach. He runs a great practice. The team is a great team. It's a classic big fish, small pond question. Is it better to be the starting CF on a team that wins, or would you rather start at SS on a team that's playing at a level a notch below?
In the best of all worlds, you'd play on the better team, then earn your spot as starting SS. Thing is, unlike batting, that's hard to do if you don't ever get the chance.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Great Weekend!
Bambino is staying red-hot. For the tournament, he was on fire.
The team advanced to the championship game and we lost to a team that's had our number all year. So, we were tournament runners-up, which isn't bad considering there were 10 teams in this tournament.
Bambino went into the tournament hitting .440, 6th on the team. He stayed hot and after 6 games in 4 days (yes, it was intense), he's now hitting .500, 3rd on the team for the season.
If he stays this hot, he will be in the running for being the team's best hitter, which is what I thought he had potential for based on his off-season workouts. It didn't happen like I had hoped. He started off poorly and we broke down his swing and built his whole approach to the plate up from scratch.
Really, I couldn't be happier with the way he did this weekend. He crushed and put himself clearly with the team's leaders.
| Player | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS | |
| xxx | .727 | .786 | .818 | 1.604 | |
| El Bambino | .636 | .636 | .636 | 1.273 | |
| xxx | .625 | .800 | .625 | 1.425 | |
| xxx | .500 | .636 | .500 | 1.136 | |
| xxx | .400 | .500 | .600 | 1.100 | |
| xxx | .385 | .429 | .462 | .890 |
The team advanced to the championship game and we lost to a team that's had our number all year. So, we were tournament runners-up, which isn't bad considering there were 10 teams in this tournament.
Bambino went into the tournament hitting .440, 6th on the team. He stayed hot and after 6 games in 4 days (yes, it was intense), he's now hitting .500, 3rd on the team for the season.
If he stays this hot, he will be in the running for being the team's best hitter, which is what I thought he had potential for based on his off-season workouts. It didn't happen like I had hoped. He started off poorly and we broke down his swing and built his whole approach to the plate up from scratch.
Really, I couldn't be happier with the way he did this weekend. He crushed and put himself clearly with the team's leaders.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
What? We got to the brackets???!!!
Strange tournament weekend.
We lost to a team we really whooped in a double header just a few weeks ago. We beat the next team.
Then, we started a game that got rained out after 2.5 innings. We were home team and winning, so that's essentially the same as completing 3 full innings. (Akin to the old "home team doesn't take their final at-bat if they're winning" thing.)
Turns out that according to Nation's Baseball rules, that was enough to constitute a complete game. So, we were then 2-1.
All we had to do was win our fourth game, against the weakest team in the bracket. We responded by playing absolutely stupid baseball. I honestly can't describe it. An example: first baseman catches a hopper. Turns to run the 4 feet to first-base to get the out. Somehow manages to drop the ball before he gets there.
They pitched a kid against us in the last two innings, and I don't mean to be cruel, but he probably would have been an average pitcher last year, when the boys were playing U9.
Instead of making the kid work, throw strikes, etc., the guys were flailing at stuff outside the strike zone, connecting for weak tappers. It was absolutely maddenning.
I'm not sure our coaches actually have a "take" signal. At this age, the main goal is development and for development, you want them hitting. It was just so stupid, though. It was a frustrating loss.
It was a loss we deserved, because we really played badly. It was a win they deserved because, although I don't think they're as good as we are as a team, they played as well as they could.
Now, for the wierd part: due to a strange tie-breaker, we advanced to bracket play, despite ourselves.
So, let's hope we'll peak for the bracket play tomorrow.
The coaches are at a total loss as to why the boys are so sluggish this season. I have some theories, but they're mostly just guesses. We're absolutely not playing up to our potential. There are some problems I can put a finger on, and I hope we address them, but it's not just the few trouble spots we've got. Everybody is really playing below their potential right now.
Probably one of those things that's just not worth obsessing about. They're kids. They're 9 and 10 years old. They'll snap out of it when they're ready to and nothing can be done to make it happen sooner.
As for El Bambino, he's still going absolutely ape. He ran out of luck a little bit today. Hit a liner straight up the middle that got past the pitcher.
9 times out of 10, that's a base hit. The problem? The 2nd baseman was covering the bag for the steal and didn't bounce back to his fielding position like he should have. So, he was in perfect position to make a play on the ball.
Despite this, Bambino almost legged it out. Got thrown out by less than half a step. He got a solid hit in his next AB to keep his streak alive. In fact, it was one of those hits you really don't like to see. He sent a rocket at the 3B who didn't quite get to it, but took it on the ankle. Hot corner can be hard to play when a right handed batter really gets around on the ball.
Funny, but the first 7 games of the season, Bambino was hitting less than .100. The next 12 games? Over .700.
He's .500 for the season, but that's mostly because he batted last or second to last all the way until the 2nd game of this tournament. So, his crappy start wasn't as damaging to his average as it could have been because he just didn't get that many ABs.
It's a funny trajectory, overall. I have to laugh.
In the off-season, I thought Bambino was going to make a case for being the best hitter on the team. He had a couple of bad at bats in scrimmages, and the coach saw something he really didn't like.
Bambino started the season in the 11 hole. Might have shaken his confidence, but who knows, might not have.
However, I basically worked with him, got help from folks, broke everything down and built it all up from scratch.
Bambino is now on a 12-game hitting streak. 3rd on the team in batting average right now:
Since his steak started, though, his numbers for the previous 10 games have looked more like a work of fiction than something that's really happening:
So, so far, so good. He's really seeing the ball well, picking good pitches to hit. Driving the ball pretty hard, legging it out when he doesn't get it quite square.
Prior to today, he was 10 for his last 12 ABs.
He almost went 2 for 2 today, but again, he got a bit of bad luck when the 2nd baseman wasn't playing his position correctly.
So, we'll see how much longer the hot streak can continue. He started last year red-hot and faded when things got a little nuts. (We had a few weeks where he didn't get any days off from baseball. That was a bit much for an 8 year old and it showed up in his stats.)
This year, though, he's a year older, a bit more mature. Has a bit better sense in the batter's box.
So, it wasn't a straight line trajectory, but he's still in the running for establishing himself as the best hitter on the team. Of course, the more important issue is that he establish himself as doing his very best and doing something at or close to his potential.
He's there now. It's a beauty ot behold.
We lost to a team we really whooped in a double header just a few weeks ago. We beat the next team.
Then, we started a game that got rained out after 2.5 innings. We were home team and winning, so that's essentially the same as completing 3 full innings. (Akin to the old "home team doesn't take their final at-bat if they're winning" thing.)
Turns out that according to Nation's Baseball rules, that was enough to constitute a complete game. So, we were then 2-1.
All we had to do was win our fourth game, against the weakest team in the bracket. We responded by playing absolutely stupid baseball. I honestly can't describe it. An example: first baseman catches a hopper. Turns to run the 4 feet to first-base to get the out. Somehow manages to drop the ball before he gets there.
They pitched a kid against us in the last two innings, and I don't mean to be cruel, but he probably would have been an average pitcher last year, when the boys were playing U9.
Instead of making the kid work, throw strikes, etc., the guys were flailing at stuff outside the strike zone, connecting for weak tappers. It was absolutely maddenning.
I'm not sure our coaches actually have a "take" signal. At this age, the main goal is development and for development, you want them hitting. It was just so stupid, though. It was a frustrating loss.
It was a loss we deserved, because we really played badly. It was a win they deserved because, although I don't think they're as good as we are as a team, they played as well as they could.
Now, for the wierd part: due to a strange tie-breaker, we advanced to bracket play, despite ourselves.
So, let's hope we'll peak for the bracket play tomorrow.
The coaches are at a total loss as to why the boys are so sluggish this season. I have some theories, but they're mostly just guesses. We're absolutely not playing up to our potential. There are some problems I can put a finger on, and I hope we address them, but it's not just the few trouble spots we've got. Everybody is really playing below their potential right now.
Probably one of those things that's just not worth obsessing about. They're kids. They're 9 and 10 years old. They'll snap out of it when they're ready to and nothing can be done to make it happen sooner.
As for El Bambino, he's still going absolutely ape. He ran out of luck a little bit today. Hit a liner straight up the middle that got past the pitcher.
9 times out of 10, that's a base hit. The problem? The 2nd baseman was covering the bag for the steal and didn't bounce back to his fielding position like he should have. So, he was in perfect position to make a play on the ball.
Despite this, Bambino almost legged it out. Got thrown out by less than half a step. He got a solid hit in his next AB to keep his streak alive. In fact, it was one of those hits you really don't like to see. He sent a rocket at the 3B who didn't quite get to it, but took it on the ankle. Hot corner can be hard to play when a right handed batter really gets around on the ball.
Funny, but the first 7 games of the season, Bambino was hitting less than .100. The next 12 games? Over .700.
He's .500 for the season, but that's mostly because he batted last or second to last all the way until the 2nd game of this tournament. So, his crappy start wasn't as damaging to his average as it could have been because he just didn't get that many ABs.
It's a funny trajectory, overall. I have to laugh.
In the off-season, I thought Bambino was going to make a case for being the best hitter on the team. He had a couple of bad at bats in scrimmages, and the coach saw something he really didn't like.
Bambino started the season in the 11 hole. Might have shaken his confidence, but who knows, might not have.
However, I basically worked with him, got help from folks, broke everything down and built it all up from scratch.
Bambino is now on a 12-game hitting streak. 3rd on the team in batting average right now:
| Date | Player | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| Season | ### | .532 | .569 | .617 | 1.186 |
| Season | ### | .500 | .618 | .524 | 1.142 |
| Season | El Bambino | .500 | .590 | .531 | 1.121 |
Since his steak started, though, his numbers for the previous 10 games have looked more like a work of fiction than something that's really happening:
| Date | Player | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| Last 10 | El Bambino | .722 | .750 | .722 | 1.472 |
| Last 10 | ### | .522 | .577 | .783 | 1.360 |
| Last 10 | ### | .500 | .643 | .500 | 1.143 |
So, so far, so good. He's really seeing the ball well, picking good pitches to hit. Driving the ball pretty hard, legging it out when he doesn't get it quite square.
Prior to today, he was 10 for his last 12 ABs.
He almost went 2 for 2 today, but again, he got a bit of bad luck when the 2nd baseman wasn't playing his position correctly.
So, we'll see how much longer the hot streak can continue. He started last year red-hot and faded when things got a little nuts. (We had a few weeks where he didn't get any days off from baseball. That was a bit much for an 8 year old and it showed up in his stats.)
This year, though, he's a year older, a bit more mature. Has a bit better sense in the batter's box.
So, it wasn't a straight line trajectory, but he's still in the running for establishing himself as the best hitter on the team. Of course, the more important issue is that he establish himself as doing his very best and doing something at or close to his potential.
He's there now. It's a beauty ot behold.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
The Boy is On Fire!
They say that the Law is a jealous mistress. If that's true, baseball is that crazy bitch who slapped you and screamed at you the other day for no reason, stole your wallet so she could score some blow, but then cleaned the house, made dinner, shopped at Victoria's Secret, and gave you a weekend that you needed to go back to work to recover from.
After being sorta bummed at the boy's slump, he caught fire and has had a bit of good luck thrown in there, too. Over the past 10 games or so, beiseboll been berry berry good to heem.
Saying he "caught fire" is a bit of a misnomer. His stats over the past 10 games have been insane. He's 8 for his last 9 ABs. Has a 9 game hitting streak going.
Over the past 10, he's led the team in BA and OBP. His numbers have been off the chart insane.
Overall, he's worked his way from dead-last on the team in most categories to 5th in batting average and 2nd in OBP.
The key has been to minimize his instructions when he's at bat, in my opinion. Instead of, "hey, you're ahead/behind in the count" or "start your hands" or any other number of things that puts way too many thoughts in his head, I'm just telling him "see the ball out of the pitcher's hand", or "good things happen when you pick up the ball out of the pitcher's hand."
That's it. That's all we need.
Like any hot streak, he's gotten some luck, too. Last night, he went 2 for 2 on a Texas Leaguer and a hopper to 3rd that he beat out. He's gotten to first on a hopper like that so often that we're sorta starting to expect that he'll beat the throw. So, it's not all stick. His speed is responsible for at least 3 of his hits during his hot streak.
I did correct one technical flaw with the assistance of Clay Snellgrove at Bases Loaded Baseball School. There are a couple of other things to address, but he's pretty hot right now. I don't want to change anything for the time being. Sometimes you can tinker with a swing just enough to knock a player out of their hot streak.
http://www.betterhitter.com/
The team won their first game of the tournament last night. Two games today. We've faced these teams before and beat them. It'd be nice to take this tournament. We have one tournament title so far this year. We have a shot at this one if we keep playing baseball.
Even though the boy is on fire, he's still hitting in the 11 hole. This is a subject of considerable frustration for me. (See previous note about Baseball being a crazy bitch.) I was shocked when he was put in the 11 hole to start the season.
However, it made me re-engineer his entire approach at the plate. He's lost some power, to be sure, but he's contact hitting and his OBP has skyrocketed. I see signs that his power swing is coming back, too.
The re-engineering took a toll and probably prolonged his slump, but I could see even then that it was probably going to result in making him a better hitter, overall. So far, so good. He's gone from being a power hitter with a lot of strikeouts and an average OBP to being a contact hitter with a great OBP. Once he gets that power stroke back, he'll be golden.
I thought, during the off-season, that he had the potential to be the team's best hitter this year. (One of the reasons why the 11 hole was such a shock.)
Based on what I'm seeing, now, he's back on track for that sort of potential.
In the mean time, I'm loving the streak.
Two games today. One tomorrow. If we advance out of pool play, up to 2 games on Monday. Then, a game on Tuesday and a game on Wednesday. Total of 6 to 8 games in 6 days.
His numbers could change a lot by this time next week.
All I can do is sit back and watch.
Oh, and sometimes I really need to watch what I say when I'm talking to a bunch of 9 and 10 year olds.
The other team tied it up in last night's game (we eventually won in the bottom of the 6th).
The boys came back all dejected looking.
So, I tried to fire them up by saying stuff like, "Hey, none of this moping around! You guys are gonna stick. You're gonna win. You're a bunch of studs!"
One of the kids said, "What's a stud?"
Ummm... uh.... yeah... poor choice of words when talking to 9 and 10 year olds. What to say? What to say? I don't think "you're wooden structural framing 2 x 4s" will get me out of this one.
"It's a big strong horse." Yeah, that's what I was talking about.
Another kid said, "I don't want to be a horse. They smell bad and make gigantic poops."
So, I pointed out that he smells bad and based on how much I've seen him eat, he probably makes gigantic poops, too.
Apparently, my little pep-talk worked because they held them scoreless in the next inning and scored a run in the bottom to win it. Somehow, though, I don't think anybody is going to back me up on using "Smelly boys who make gigantic poops" as the team's new motto.
After being sorta bummed at the boy's slump, he caught fire and has had a bit of good luck thrown in there, too. Over the past 10 games or so, beiseboll been berry berry good to heem.
Saying he "caught fire" is a bit of a misnomer. His stats over the past 10 games have been insane. He's 8 for his last 9 ABs. Has a 9 game hitting streak going.
Over the past 10, he's led the team in BA and OBP. His numbers have been off the chart insane.
| Date | Player | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS | SO |
| Last 10 | The Boy | .667 | .714 | .722 | 1.437 | 4 |
Overall, he's worked his way from dead-last on the team in most categories to 5th in batting average and 2nd in OBP.
| Date | Player | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS | SO |
| Season | xxx | .524 | .556 | .619 | 1.175 | 2 |
| Season | xxx | .500 | .604 | .526 | 1.130 | 3 |
| Season | xxx | .500 | .543 | .690 | 1.234 | 4 |
| Season | xxx | .488 | .543 | .512 | 1.056 | 2 |
| Season | The Boy | .481 | .588 | .519 | 1.107 | 8 |
The key has been to minimize his instructions when he's at bat, in my opinion. Instead of, "hey, you're ahead/behind in the count" or "start your hands" or any other number of things that puts way too many thoughts in his head, I'm just telling him "see the ball out of the pitcher's hand", or "good things happen when you pick up the ball out of the pitcher's hand."
That's it. That's all we need.
Like any hot streak, he's gotten some luck, too. Last night, he went 2 for 2 on a Texas Leaguer and a hopper to 3rd that he beat out. He's gotten to first on a hopper like that so often that we're sorta starting to expect that he'll beat the throw. So, it's not all stick. His speed is responsible for at least 3 of his hits during his hot streak.
I did correct one technical flaw with the assistance of Clay Snellgrove at Bases Loaded Baseball School. There are a couple of other things to address, but he's pretty hot right now. I don't want to change anything for the time being. Sometimes you can tinker with a swing just enough to knock a player out of their hot streak.
http://www.betterhitter.com/
The team won their first game of the tournament last night. Two games today. We've faced these teams before and beat them. It'd be nice to take this tournament. We have one tournament title so far this year. We have a shot at this one if we keep playing baseball.
Even though the boy is on fire, he's still hitting in the 11 hole. This is a subject of considerable frustration for me. (See previous note about Baseball being a crazy bitch.) I was shocked when he was put in the 11 hole to start the season.
However, it made me re-engineer his entire approach at the plate. He's lost some power, to be sure, but he's contact hitting and his OBP has skyrocketed. I see signs that his power swing is coming back, too.
The re-engineering took a toll and probably prolonged his slump, but I could see even then that it was probably going to result in making him a better hitter, overall. So far, so good. He's gone from being a power hitter with a lot of strikeouts and an average OBP to being a contact hitter with a great OBP. Once he gets that power stroke back, he'll be golden.
I thought, during the off-season, that he had the potential to be the team's best hitter this year. (One of the reasons why the 11 hole was such a shock.)
Based on what I'm seeing, now, he's back on track for that sort of potential.
In the mean time, I'm loving the streak.
Two games today. One tomorrow. If we advance out of pool play, up to 2 games on Monday. Then, a game on Tuesday and a game on Wednesday. Total of 6 to 8 games in 6 days.
His numbers could change a lot by this time next week.
All I can do is sit back and watch.
Oh, and sometimes I really need to watch what I say when I'm talking to a bunch of 9 and 10 year olds.
The other team tied it up in last night's game (we eventually won in the bottom of the 6th).
The boys came back all dejected looking.
So, I tried to fire them up by saying stuff like, "Hey, none of this moping around! You guys are gonna stick. You're gonna win. You're a bunch of studs!"
One of the kids said, "What's a stud?"
Ummm... uh.... yeah... poor choice of words when talking to 9 and 10 year olds. What to say? What to say? I don't think "you're wooden structural framing 2 x 4s" will get me out of this one.
"It's a big strong horse." Yeah, that's what I was talking about.
Another kid said, "I don't want to be a horse. They smell bad and make gigantic poops."
So, I pointed out that he smells bad and based on how much I've seen him eat, he probably makes gigantic poops, too.
Apparently, my little pep-talk worked because they held them scoreless in the next inning and scored a run in the bottom to win it. Somehow, though, I don't think anybody is going to back me up on using "Smelly boys who make gigantic poops" as the team's new motto.
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